| THE STAR,
May 13th, 2002 - THE STATE of
Andhra Pradesh in India is keen
to learn from local ports to
develop its own terminal infrastructure.
Its government
is exchanging and sharing information
on the construction of roads
and ports with Malaysian authorities
said secretary (co-ordination)
to the Government of Andhra
Pradesh Binoy Kumar.
"Malaysia has
done well in terms of infrastructure
such as the construction of
ports while we are assisting
the country in road building,
so we believe we can learn from
each others expertise and experience,"
he said.
Binoy was part
of a 57 member delegation from
the Andhra Pradesh legislative
assembly that visited West Port
last week to tour its facilities
and operations.
The Indian
delegation was led by the organisation's
deputy speaker K.Harishwar Reddy.
Westport executive
chairman Tan Sri G.Gnanalingam
was present to welcome the visitors
and give a briefing on the port's
facilities and operations.
Binoy said
West Port's experience would
be helpful in the construction
of Ganggavarnam Port, a greenfield
terminal project with natural
depth.
The private-funded
port which cost RM2bil is expected
to be a major hub in India's
east coast and potential to
handle between 4 to 5 million
TEUs and 20 million tonnes of
conventional cargo.
"The contracts
for the development will be
finalised soon and we are confident
of attracting substantial amount
of traffic.
"It has a natural
depth of between 12 and 15 metres,"
he said. Gnanalingam said West
Port was willing to offer assistance
to the state of Andhra Pradesh
in the development and building
of its ports.
He said the
privatisation of sea terminal
projects in India would boost
port operations and cargo handling
in that country.
"Statistics
show that Indian ports have
a capacity to handle 215 million
tonnes of cargo but the demand
in the year 2000 was 325 million
tonnes. In future this is expected
to increase to 524 million tonnes.
"Container
traffic in India recorded a
growth of 7% in the year 1995
and a 10% growth in 2000 while
in Malaysia the growth was 60%
and 70% respectively.
"Container
volume will continue to grow,
despite recent events and the
economy slowdown as consumers
have higher incomes and manufacturers
produce goods that require change
after a few years,"he said.
Andhra Pradesh
is slowly advancing as major
IT and a biotech centre in India
as more of such industries are
being set up there.
The state has
more than 300km of coastline. |
