Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan on Friday asked the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) officials to prepare an alternative marketing strategy to improve the trade volume after the shifting of dusty cargoes to other ports.
Conducting a joint review meeting with the stakeholders of different infrastructural projects, he said that the plan has to be formalised soon as the dusty cargoes such as iron ore and coal would be shifted to Ennore Port as per the directive of the Madras High Court from October 2011.
The ChPT officials said that granite products could be considered as a viable alternative and each berth could be leased to the users under the ‘Berth Reservation Scheme' for a period of 10 years against the BOOT system. Apart from granite products, even general cargoes could be accommodated in these berths.
To remove the excess flab, ChPT has suggested introduction of special Voluntary Retirement Scheme and has sent the proposal to the Ministry some two months back. The proposal calls for paying one-and-half times the salary for the services put in by an employees or payment of salary for the balance years of service, whichever is lower.
“Though we have 7,700 employees, we expect at least 600 to opt for special VRS. Similar VRS was launched in 2001 that was opted by over 500 employees,” said a ChPT official.
Mr. Vasan reviewed the performance of the ChPT vis-à-vis the targets set for the various performance parameters for 2010-11 and 2011-12, major projects such as Ennore-Manali Road Improvement Project (EMRIP), elevated four-lane link road from Maduravoyal to Chennai Port and Mega container terminal.
He asked the officials to commence the work on the 1.6 km four lane road from Chennai Port zero gate to Kasimedu N4 police station immediately and complete EMRIP by June 2013 and elevate four lane link road by September 2013. “The project status should be provided to the Ministry on monthly basis,” Mr. Vasan said.
The meeting was attended by the officials of ChPT, Ennore Port, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and State government.
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