Chennai Port: -An ISO 14001: 2004 Certified Port

Abstract

Chennai Port established in 1639, is the gateway port of India's eastern coast and is the 2nd largest port in terms of cargo handled. It has a channel length of 7 kilometers, harbor length of 5.5 kilometers, and advantage of having a deep draft of 16 meters allowing it to handle large vessels. The Port handles a variety of cargo including containers, automobile exports, POL, coal, fertilizers and general cargo items. It has infrastructure facilities of container terminal, oil terminals, RORO terminal and bulk container handling terminal for handling a variety of cargo. The Port has a large hinterland consisting of the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Pondicherry. The Port has very good opportunities due to India's growing international trade and the large hinterland serviced by it. The government of India plans to develop Chennai Port for a greater role in India's Maritime trade. The study measures the growth of container traffic in TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) during the selected time period 1994–95 to 2014–15 and also find out the impact of container traffic handled by Chennai port on the development of the state. For measuring the growth of container traffic, we incorporate the time trend analysis of container traffic handled by Chennai port during the specified time period. Similarly, to measure the impact of container traffic handled by Chennai port on state development, we consider regression analysis. The study also incorporates SWOT analysis of the Chennai Port.