Union Minister Sarabananda Sonowal announced on Sunday that India is in talks with Russia to inaugurate the Chennai-Vladivostok Maritime Corridor expected to boost maritime trade between the two nations. The Minister was in Chennai for a performance review of the Chennai and Kamarajar Ports, which have performed well for the last four years. He inaugurated projects worth overall ₹148 crores, including a ₹56 crores project in Chennai and ₹92 crores project in Kamarajar. These projects will enhance the efficiency and capacity of the ports and have set a target to handle 100 million metric tonnes cargo in the current financial year.
In the last nine years, the cargo handling among the ports across the country doubled from 800 million metric tonnes annually to 1,650 million metric tonnes. Kamarajar Port achieved the second-highest growth among the 12 major ports in the financial year 2022-23. Chennai Port has taken many initiatives to grow container traffic. 108 projects in the Ministry’s Sagarmala Programme worth ₹1.46 lakh crores are being implemented across Tamil Nadu.
Sonowal inaugurated three projects at Chennai Port Trust under the Sagarmala programme, including the bunker berths, a goods shed at Jolarpet, and a sewage treatment plant. In addition, under the National Infrastructure Pipeline initiative, Sonowal inaugurated the widening and concreting of the port access road to provide a seamless evacuation of cargo and improved road connectivity to the port.
