MPT plans world-class passenger
terminal
Sandesh Prabhudesai
2 April 2002
Mormugao Port Trust, the 116-year old port
situated at a natural harbour on Goan coast, now plans to
diversify its ore-dominated activity also to promote tourism,
by constructing a world-class passenger terminal.
Announcing at an annual press conference,
MPT chairman P K Mohanty said the proposal worth Rs 100
crore is being included in the tenth five-year plan and
may come true shortly if the port expansion takes shape
as per the plan.
The MPT has made the tourism-related activity
the part of the development of Vasco Bay. The proposal worth
Rs 312 crore on BOT basis includes two general cargo berths
and one container berth, in addition to the fishing jetty
and berths for the Navy, Coast Guard and Fisheries Survey
of India.
The passenger terminal will be equipped
with all kind of facilities for the tourists, including
rest rooms, telephony, sanitation etc, said Mohanty. He
has also sent a proposal to the central tourism ministry
for funding the proposal.
"We will grow together", says the MPT chairman,
stating that Goa is one of the five ports identified to
facilitate tourism, along with Mumbai, Mangalore and Cochin
along the west coast. The leisure cruise would probably
visit all these places.
The Mormugao harbour receives passenger
vessels even otherwise, but not with all the necessary infrastructure
made available for the tourists. Unlike 34 vessels anchored
in the port last year, this year however could see only
25 passenger vessels visiting the state, mostly from the
European countries.
Though the MPT has only four functioning
berths including one exclusively used for the oil and one
for the iron ore, Mohanty expects the cargo traffic to increase
from the present 22 MT to 39 MT within a decade. Besides
Vasco Bay with three berths, the outer harbour project is
also thus underway.
In spite of world recession, Mohanty claims
the MPT's cargo handling increased by 17 per cent, from
19.63 MT last year to 21.81 MT. The major chunk of it was
obviously 17.97 MT of iron ore, which contains 78 per cent
of the total cargo handling at the MPT.
China appears to have come for the rescue,
by increasing its imports by 41 per cent though its regular
importer - Japan - contributed only four per cent more -
from 8.65 MT to 9.2 MT. Mohanty appears confident that the
China contract would continue even the next year.
Though China's imports of iron ore from
MPT is hardly four per cent of the total 70 MT it imports
from all over the world, Mohanty claims that his efficiency
in the cargo handling could attract China, rather than going
to countries like Brazil or Australia.
The Mormugao port witnessed negative trend
this year from several countries like Pakistan, Turkey,
Italy, UAE, Bahrain and Taiwan. But, besides South Korea
and Romania, little more imports by Belgium also helped
the MPT to show a rising trend while also maintaining a
surplus of almost Rs six crore, in spite of spending almost
Rs 35 crore on the VRS.
