VASCO: Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) Chairman I Jeyakumar on Thursday claimed that Mormugao Port is having a history for more than 130 years and such temporary pause (pointing out to recent coal and iron ore issues) will not force the port to shut down its operations in Goa and that it (port) will surely survive.
“MPT will exist in Goa as part of economic catalyser and in a different role. Only my plea to port employees or the other agencies is that they should not be emotional. They need to be practical and objective,” Jeyakumar said.
He said in current financial year MPT will be having a loss of around Rs 35 crore. However, the port can still sustain as out of total Rs 35 crore, around Rs 30 crore would be SVRS payment and if port deducts this payment then the actual loss to port will be only Rs 5 crore which is ok.
“This year is ok as after we deduct SVRS payment from our actual loss, then the loss in the current financial year to port would be around Rs 5 crore. But the next financial year would be a testing time and hence port is trying hard to bring in as much cargo as possible here in MPT,” Jeyakumar said.
“Considering the current situation where cargo handling is being stopped one by one, MPT has now decided to have alternate cargo for which our team has already started marketing in different States. We are expecting to import sand and iron ore imports from other countries are also expected. Similarly granite and improvement in steel exports is expected. Also container growth this year is 9 percent and it will further boost once the NH17 B road work gets completed by February 2019,” he added.
“With all these efforts we are trying to have as much cargo as possible here. Similarly, our other underutilised terminals will be used for other cargo. We expect that mining operations will also resume in another two-three years. With whatever the available resources, we are planning to use them. We are also planning to develop additional cruise berth as per the ministry’s directions. I feel that it is only a temporary pause and not a permanent thing,” he added.
