Vallarpadamport, vallarpadam terminal, Smart city, kochi tourism

Kochi: Six months after its commissioning, the country’s first ever International Container Transshipment Terminal at Vallarpadam is yet to commence actual operations
With hundreds of containers held up at ICTT and a number of International companies backing out, the terminal is in real crisis.
As many as 416 containers are held up at ICTT for more than a month due to lack of feeder vessles. Already some international shipping companies- CMA CGM, Maersk and ZIM- which had begun mainline operations to ICTT Vallarpadam, went back Colombo for transshipment due to the delay in sending containers from here to destination ports, sources said.
While the terminal is projected to handle an estimate of 7.75 lakh TEUs (Twenty foot equivalent units) of containers in 2011, the 13 available Indian feeder vessels together has a capacity to carry only 12, 156 TEUs at any point of time.
Also these 13 vessels, from SCI, Relay shipping, Gati, Seaways, Jindal and Caravel touch ICTT Vallarpadam only occasionaly.
Due to lack of feeder vessels, the container traffic has not increased much even after the commissioning of ICTT, officials said.
“Compared to the corresponding period last year, there is an increase of only about 4 percentage in container handling. It is much less than what we actually projected to achieve this year. The depth has not become an issue for vessels to call at ICTT,”. Cochin Port Trust Chairman Paul Antony said.
However, stastistics so far dosen’t paint a rosy picture.
While 1,30,887 containers were handled during the April- August 2010, this year only 1,36,736 containers were handled
In 2010 about about 3.12 lakh TEUs of containers were handled here. DP World, the prometers of ICTT Vallarpadam, has projected this to be 7.75 lakh TEUs in 2011, which would rake in 109.91 crore to the cochin port trust.
If no action is talen to exclude cargo vessels from the Cabotage law – which prevents foreign flag vessels to tranship containers between Indian Ports – ICTT Vallarpadam may not survive as a transhipment terminal.
It has been pointed out that the Parliamentary Standing Committe on Cabotage has resolved that the law should be relaxed to enable transhipment of containers through foreign flag vessels from Vallarpadam.
The Director General of Shipping has also recommended opening up of containerisedcargo to foreign flag vessels.

National shrine and Basilica

A major pilgrim centre for Christians, Church of Our Lady of Ransom is one of the oldest European Churches in India built by the Portuguese Missionaries. The church dedicated to the Holy Mary of Vallarpadam popularly known as Vallarapadath Amma, is located in the middle of Vallarpadam, a small idyllic island on the Vembanad lake, 1 km north from the mainland Kochi (Ernakulam), Kerala. Today the church elevated to the status of a Basilica as well as a National shrine attracts more than five lakh people including pilgrims and tourists, annually. One of the three Basilicas in Kochi, the Church is under the diocese of Verapoly (Varappuzha). The church earlier accessible only by boat is now linked to the mainland Ernakulam, and the islands of Bolghatty, Mulavukad and Vypin by three adjacent bridges called the Goshree bridges. Vallarpadam island, about 3.9 km in length and 1.5 km in width is located between the islands of Mulavukad and Vypin, and to the east of Bolghatty island. Vallarpadam container Terminal, a proposed project here could make this small island one of the best hub ports in the world

The project was formally launched with the laying of the foundation stone by Mr. Manmohan Singh, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Jacob Thomas, Chairman, CoPT and Mr. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman, DP World. The proceedings were overseen by the Hon’ble Minister of Shipping, Government of India, Mr.T.R. Baalu, the Hon’ble Chief Minister for Kerala, Mr.Oommen Chandy and His Excellency, the Governor of Kerala, Mr. R.L. Bhatia.

Vallarpadam is the largest single operator container terminal currently planned in India and the first in the country to operate in a special economic zone. The new terminal will make Cochin a key centre in the shipping world reducing India’s dependence on foreign ports to handle transhipment. Approval for the agreement was given by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance and meanwhile, the DP World will manage and subsequently transfer its operations at the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal’ (RGCT) in Cochin Port to the new terminal upon its completion. The DP World has been granted a 38-year concession for the exclusive operation and management of the site.

The total cost of the project is estimated at US$500 million and will be funded by DP World through non-recourse debt funding. The debt is provided by a consortium of banks led by the Infrastructure Development Fund Company (IDFC), set up to provide growth capital for infrastructure projects in India.

With the finalisation of this agreement, the DP World has taken over the management and operation of the existing container handling facility at the RGCT prior to the transfer of its operations to the new terminal upon its completion. DP World will actively manage and invest in the facility focusing on improving productivity, investing in quayside and yard-handling equipment and implementing state-of-the-art IT systems. DP World has estimated that the total initial investment required will be approximately US$20 million which includes the immediate provision of four RTGs and two Mobile Harbour Cranes to the Terminal – to improve yard handling, truck turnaround time and quayside operations.