KOCHI: Giving a booster to the business community of Malabar, the much-awaited coastal shipping service connecting Kochi with Beypore, Azhikkal ports commenced its first-ever service on Tuesday. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of State for Ministry of Ports,Shipping and Waterways, inaugurated the loading operation of the service through a virtual event.
Titled the ‘Green Freight Corridor-2,’ the service is being operated by Mumbai-based Round The Coast Pvt. Ltd with their river sea vessel — MV Hope Seven.Though it currently operated twice a week, the firm is planning to extend its operations to Kollam port in the next phase.“Our vessel has a designed capacity of 106 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) and will ply twice a week,” said a source.
The regular service is expected to reduce the logistic cost incurred for transport from Northern Kerala. While commodities like rice, wheat, salt, construction material, sanitary wares, cement, etc. coming from Gujarat will be taken to the minor ports, the operators are hoping to attract export cargo such as Plywood, Footwear, Textiles, Coffee and cashew containers from Bypore, Azhikkal and Kollam ports in the coming months.
“The coastal shipping service from Kochi to Beypore was discontinued two years ago due to technical issues. Officials are hoping that a new service will transform coastal shipping in the state. “Around 3 lakh TEUs containers from Gujarat are arriving in Kochi port annually. Of them, more than 50,000 containers are for the Malabar region. Exim cargos from both Beypore and Azhikkal are yet to be fully tapped. We are hoping that the new service will herald a new shift in cargo transport across the state,” said an official of Kerala Maritime Board.
The new coastal shipping service comes with the support of the Union government’s flagship programme ‘Sagarmala’ which promotes coastal shipping between major and non-major ports which reduce traffic congestion on the road and rail networks.Besides, Cochin Port is offering a 50 per cent rebate in vessel-related charges for the river-sea vessels and the state government has offered an operational incentive of 10 per cent above the road transportation cost to promote coastal shipping of containers across the state.