A HUB PORT FOR INDIA ***

Considering the growth in containerization in Asia Pacific region and in India itself is there a potential for developing an ICTT in India? Well now that we have seen the Global scenario of trade , containerization , Ship building trends , we feel that the answer is a LOUD YES !!
In East coast at Gangavaram or Tuticorin? Or in west coast at Mundra, Pippavav, JNPT, Vallarpadam (Cochin) or Vizhinjam?
Gangavaram (east coast) The newly coming up port (DVS Raju/DPI consortium) can come up as a very good port with its 20.00mts draught. But it is too far from East-west corridor. Hence it is not a suitable candidate .
Tuticorin (east coast) With its 8/9mts of water depth and rocky bed Tuticorin also hope to develop an ICTT there. The plan was to blast the rock and dredge. The ambitious Sethusamudram project will make it closer to mainline . By dredging the Adam’s Bridge connecting Gulf of Mannar to Palk Strait..
West coast Coming to west coast all ports in Gujarat and Mumbai are too far requiring 2 or 3 days extra voyage for ships. The extra days required definitely counts considering the chartering rates of ships. Mundra has,, all the marine / meteorological, advantages but it is too far. For JNPT the 17.00 km approach channel is the bottleneck added with the distance from main line JNPT also has an ambitious plan of dredging the channel at a cost of some 500.00 Crore. The distance from main line (east-west corridor) definitely counts. A gearless vessel with capacity of 4,500 containers (4th generation) is now being chartered for $47,500 per day. The same vessel was being chartered at $32,000 in 1995 and at $10,600 in 2002. Similarly, a geared vessel with a capacity of 1,700 (1st generation) containers was being chartered at $18,000 per day in 1995 and $5,600 per day in 2002. The same vessel is now being chartered at $21,750 per day. (The chartering rates are highly fluctuating and not steady.) The loss in Freight charges is hence real concern here . The ports in Konkan Kathiavar coast lose out.
Now the choice is between Vallarpadam and Vizhinjam.
Cochin handled 13.572 mmt in 2003-’04. 73.37% is Crude / POL. That means solid cargo handled is only 3.6 mmt. In addition Cochin handled 169965 TEUs containers.
As far as ICTT is concerned both Vallarpadam and Vizhinjam are Greenfield sites.
Cochin is a confluent of 6 rivers (33% of freshet discharge being from Periyar). Due to the problems of siltation Vallarpadam cannot maintain the depths required for the giant ships of future . If dredging is a solution to deepen the channel why Kandla, Mumbai or Murmagoa is not able to call a Panamax?
‘At Cochin the wave climate is governed by the southwest monsoon when wave action can be strong with prevailing wave directions from northwest to southwest. Deep water (15m) wave observations in the past indicate the significant wave heights of 4m, 2m, and 1m at the water depths of 10m, 5m and 2m respectively, the predominant wave direction being west and wave period 9 secs’.
When the significant wave height (Hs) is 4mts at the mouth, the maximum wave height (Hm) will be 7.12 mts, so what is the depth of water required for a ship drawing a draught of 14.5mts, considering Squatting, heaving and pitching?
Draft of Cochin Port Channels
Approach Channel
Outer channel
Length
:
10000 mtrs.
Draft
:
11.7 mtrs.
Width
:
200 mtrs.



Inner channels
Ernakulam channel
Length
:
4720 mtrs.
Draft
:
11.7/10.7 mtrs.
Width
:
244 mtrs



Mattancherry channel
Length
:
4080 mtrs.
Draft
:
9.14 mtrs
Width
:
244 mtrs