Government plans mega transhipment hub in Tamil Nadu

• Colombo and Singapore ports handle most of the container movement as Indian ports cannot handle larger vessels.
• Around 2 million TEUs are trans-shipped from India to ports such as Colombo, Singapore, Salalah in Oman, Jebel Ali in Dubai and Malaysian ports.
• Colombo and Singapore together account for around 66% of containers trans-shipped from India.
• Modi government is planning to build a mega transhipment hub at a cost of over Rs 5,000 crore to reduce India’s dependence on Colombo and Singapore ports for handling cargo traffic
• The transhipment hub is expected to come up near Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu around the international trading route.
• The new container handling facility will not only reduce the logistics cost by around 10% but will also bring down the travel time.
• The capacity of the terminal is expected to be over 1 million twenty equivalent unit (TEUs), which will be increased four times in phases in coming years as more berths would be added.
• India is also likely to provide cabotage relaxation at the new hub, foreign liners would be able to transport goods from one Indian port to another without paying additional tax.
• India is also planning to build five new ports at an investment of around Rs 25,000 crore.

Source: EconomicTimes