Visakhapatnam Port Trust chief briefs port ops to US navy delegates

Visakhapatnam: United States of America navy delegates Germaine Evans, American Attache, Jeffery Young, NCIS security specialist Lawrence Dass, Admin, Defence Office US Embassy and Venkat, RSO, Hyderabad visited Visakhapatnam Port Trust on Monday.

They met VPT Deputy Chairman P L Haranadh and were briefed about the port operations and handling of various cargos, the infrastructure facilities available, pilotage and anchorage of vessels, availability of berths in the inner and outer harbours, among others.

The main objective of the visit, the US delegates said, was that the US proposes to foster a friendly naval exercise. In this context, they said they would like to have first-hand information on the security of the US crew members and the US vessels while berthing at the port along with the logistic arrangements, immigrations process, access control and so on.

Speaking on the occasion, Haranadh said the CISF was manning the port area and it was well secured with the coordination and cooperation of Coastal Marine Police, Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy's jurisdiction.

Traffic manager of VPT Ratna Shekar, among others participated in the programme.