Gujarat ports making moves to attract containers
An APM Terminals facility in the Indian state of Gujarat will spend about $50 million to dredge its berth to from 12.5 meters to 14.5 meters to handle larger ships.
The dredging at the Port of Pipavav, one of two private container ports in Gujarat, is expected to be complete by mid-2009, according to a report by Exim News Service. The port is also building a container yard that will boost its capacity to 600,000 TEUs by the end of the year, with the potential to increase that capacity by another 670,000 TEUs with more container yard space by the end of 2009.
The port handled more than 200,000 TEUs in 2007.
Exim also reported that another port in Gujarat, Kandla, has taken delivery of two container quay cranes and two rubber-tired gantry cranes for its growing container terminal. Kandla, a multipurpose port, is one of the country’s biggest ports by tonnage, and has eyes on expanding container volumes. The two rail-mounted quay cranes will augment the port’s capacity, with two mobile harbor cranes doing the work previously. The quay cranes are to be operational in the first half of 2009.
