Ennore Port takes stock of traders requirements

Source: http://www.sagarsandesh.com/news/ennore-port-takes-stock-of-traders-requirements/

Mr. M. A. Bhaskarachar, Chairman-cum- Managing Director of EPL, interacting with Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Director (Operations), EPL during the trade meet on Feb 15 in Chennai

Facing stiff competition from neighbouring ports like Krishnapatnam, Kattupalli and Chennai, the management of Ennore Port Limited, country’s only corporatized Major Port, has organised a trade meet with its users on Feb. 15 in Chennai.
Organised in association with the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) to get more attention among all the stakeholders, the EPL management  sought users’ perspectives to improve capacity at the port to meet the challenges.

Though the trade meet was said to be the first such initiative from the port in association with a trade body, users felt that EPL management organised it primarily to have the users’ view on the proposed container terminal at the port.

Ever since Mr. M. A. Bhaskarachar, who took charge as new Chairman-cum- Managing Director of the port two months ago, EPL officials are on their toes to bring more business to the port, which came into existence as only a satellite port for handling coal needs of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) about a decade ago.

Initiating the debate at the trade meet, Mr. Bhaskarachar said: “The very objective of organizing the trade meet is to elucidate the trade that we are a multi-cargo handling port with strong plans for a container terminal in future and not a coal handling port alone, as being projected among the EXIM fraternity.”
He also spoke about the financial plans and tax-free bonds tied with upcoming projects at the port and appealed to the users to give their concrete suggestions to improve the productivity of the port.
Mr. R. Senthil Kumar, GM-Operations, EPL, gave a presentation on the Ennore Port’s past, present and future to the users which was well received by the audience. He also announced that EPL is encouraged by the response from the trade for its proposed container terminal and plans to award the project before the end of 2013.

The session ended with an interactive session when users raised several questions about the management pitfalls, transparency in tariff in the port and viability of the proposed container terminal as three of their neighbouring ports are already into box handling business.
Replying to those queries, Mr. M. Gunasekaran, GM (Finance), EPL, assured the trade of positive action from the port soon. Besides others, Mr. T. Shivaraman, President, MCCI, and Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Director (Operations), EPL, spoke.