Locals urge Chennai Port Trust to take back its land

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, July 22, 2010:

CHENNAI: Locals as well as entrepreneurs involved in exim trade using containers, urged the Chennai Port Trust to take back the 11-acre land, recently returned to Thiruvotriyur Municipality, and develop it as a common user facility for all port users, to address the traffic problems on the Ennore Expressway, since it is being used by container trailers, leading to frequent traffic snarls.

Ever since the Port Trust had returned the prime spot, used as a container trailer parking yard since 2007 by the Chennai Container Terminal Limited (CCTL), citing that 'it was not of much use to them,' the residents had been complaining that the sudden decision would affect their safety on the expressway.

"The port should take back the land from the civic body and develop it as a common user facility for the sake of all port users. This would be a permanent solution," Kotteswaran, a social activist from Thiruvotriyur told Express.

To press their proposal, residents and a group of traders have planned to meet Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan and Chennai Port Trust Chairman Captain Subhash Kumar on Thursday. "For such a port trust, spending a few crores to set right the perennial problem once and for all, is no big deal and they should go ahead with it," Kotteswaran urged.

According to an exporter, who did not want to be named, scarcity of vacant space had affected the expansion plans of the port,. "The return of prime land located along a beachfront in Thiruvotriyur, which has a potential to be developed as a container hub in the near future, to reduce handling burden inside the port, could spell doom for the port's future development," the exporter added.

As the connectivity issue still eludes a permanent solution, most of the importers and exporters dealing in breakbulk cargo (iron ore and granite) are slowly shifting towards the Krishnapatnam Port, about 200 km away from Chennai.