Tamil Nadu to join major ports to evacuate commodities

Chennai: Tamil Nadu is expected to make a huge contribution to India’s coastal shipping, saving logistics costs and its northern parts have been identified as ideal location for shipping steel.

Odisha, northern Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are the other locations for shipping steel; while for cement southern Gujarat and central Andhra Pradesh have been identified as ideal locations based on the mapping of limestone reserves.

The networking of the ports including those in Tamil Nadu and once the Enayam port near Colachel in Kanyakumari district is commissioned, the Sagarmala project will alter the way logistic evacuation takes place in India besides decrease the cost of freight for goods handled and evacuated by sea ports.

India's container transport is “skewed” towards road transport due to high railway freight, lack of last mile connectivity, and lack of reliable rescheduling of freight trains. The Union shipping ministry has identified 14 roads to railway networks to bridge this gap and hopes to save up to Rs 3,000 crore. Railways are also going to play a major part in decreasing logistic charges, says a study by the Shipping Ministry.

India could save another Rs 5,600 crore using coastal routes to move commodities such as fertilisers, petroleum, oil and lubricants, food grains and iron. “The aim is to decrease exporting time by five days from the present 32 days, thereby save up to '6,000 crore,” an official said.

The ambitious Sagarmala project, aiming to modernise the country's sea ports, is estimated to save up to Rs 40,000 crore per annum spent on logistics by key industries, says the study.

The project will trigger an increase in coastal shipping of commodities like coal, cement, iron, steel, food grains, fertilisers, and petroleum, oil and lubricants, of up to 280 million metric tonne per annum by 2025.