Chennai Port, the third oldest port among the twelve major ports, is associate degree rising hub port within the geographical area of Asian nation. This entranceway port for all load has completed one hundred thirty five years of wonderful service to the nation’s maritime trade.
Maritime trade started approach back in 1639 on the ocean shore city. it had been associate degree open road -stead and exposed sandy coast until 1815. The initial piers were inbuilt 1861, however the storms of 1868 and 1872 created them inoperative . thus a man-made harbour was designed and therefore the operations were started in 1881 and 1872 created them inoperative . thus a man-made harbour was designed and therefore the operations were started in 1881. The load operations were disbursed on the northern pier, settled on the northeastern aspect of Fort St. George in city. within the 1st number of years the port registered traffic of three hundred thousand tonnes of load handling 600 ships.
Being a man-made harbour, the port was liable to the cyclones, accretion of sand within the basin thanks to underwater currents, that reduced the draft. Sir Francis Spring a visionary skilfully thespian a long conceive to charter the course of the port in an exceedingly scientific manner, overcoming each artificial and natural challenges. The shifting of the doorway of the port from jap aspect to the North jap aspect protected the port to an oversized extent from the natural vulnerabilities. By the top of 1920 the port was equipped with a dock consisting of 4 berths within the West Quays, one every within the East & South wharfage beside the transit sheds, warehouses and a railway yard to facilitate the transfer of load from land to ocean and the other way around. further berths were side with a berth at South wharfage and another between WQ2 & WQ3 within the forties.
India’s Independence saw the port gathering development, momentum. The topography of the Port modified in 1964 once the Jawahar dock with capability to berth half dozen vessels to handle Dry Bulk cargoes like Coal, Iron ore, chemical and non unsafe liquid cargoes was incised out on the southern aspect.
In tune with the international maritime developments, the port developed the Outer Harbour, named Bharathi Dock for handling crude in 1972 and for mechanized handling of ore in 1974. The ore terminal is provided with Mechanized ore handling plant, one amongst the 3 such facilities within the country, with a capability of handling eight million tonnes. The city port’s share of ore export from Asian nation is 12-tone system. However, at this time thanks to Hon'ble High Court's order handling of Ore is stopped. The dedicated facility for oil supports the enlargement of the CPCL's petroleum refinery within the rural area. This oil terminal is capable of handling Suezmax vessels.
In 1983, the port publicized the country’s 1st dedicated instrumentality terminal facility commissioned by the then Prime Minister Smt.Indira Gandhi on eighteenth December 1983. The Port privatized this terminal and is operated by city instrumentality Terminal non-public restricted. The port is hierarchal within the high a hundred instrumentality ports within the world. Witnessing an outstanding growth in instrumentality handling year once in 2009 commenced the Second instrumentality Terminal with a capability to handle one.5 M TEU's to satisfy the increasing demand.
The Port currently with 3 docks, twenty four berths and draft travel twelve m to sixteen.5 m has become a hub port for Containers, Cars and Project load within the geographical area
Chennai Port is one amongst major ports having Terminal Shunting Yard and running their own Railway operations within the harbour. The port has railway lines running up to forty one Kms, eight sidings to handle big selection of load like Granite, Food grains, Dry Bulk, etc. For handling containers seperate sidings area unit obtainable.
The Port has handled fifty.06 Million Tonnes of load volume for 2015-16 vis-a-vis fifty two.54 Million Tonnes of load in 2014-15. instrumentality Volume enlarged to 1565130 TEU's against 1551549 TEU's in 2014-15. Physical performance parameters like Pre-Berthing Detention, circle Time and Ship Berth day Output continued to enhance.
The existing Cruise Terminal is being upgraded to International Standards as an area of Cruise Shipping Policy. The induction of Mobile Harbour Cranes 100T - two Nos is predicted to enhance the productivity of load Handling of the Port.
Aggressive promoting initiatives area unit being undertaken to enhance the Port Trade, provision and additionally to draw in new Cargoes.