VPT Chairman M T Krishna Babu inaugurates Command Control Centre

Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam Port has embarked on automation of business and operational processes with a view to improve last mile delivery to customers and to bring improvement in ease of doing business.

As part of it, a Command Control Centre (CCC) is conceptualised to provide centralised control for monitoring the entire operational activities. All the operational officers and senior supervisors from marine, traffic, railways, CISF and mechanical and electrical engineering will be positioned at the Centre.

The facility will be operational round-the-clock. The CCC also has the functionality of real time interaction with external agencies such as the Coast Guard, Indian Navy, Light House, Marine Police, Customs and NDRF in emergencies.

Inaugurating the CCC on Friday, VPT Chairman M T Krishna Babu said the CCC has advanced technological features including CCTV footage, round-the-clock facility with 80 high resolution HD cameras positioned at all operational locations for effective surveillance, RFID gate management system at all gates for monitoring vehicles and issue of passes, VHF system, AIS radar system, to provide data capturing on real time basis.

The CCC is centrally located in the ground floor of the administrative office building for easy access. The Centre is designed to provide real time monitoring of all operational activities.

The facility envisages effective planning with seamless co-ordination among all the operational departments, real time availability of information on different operational activities, effective planning and timely availability of appropriate resources, the Chairman said.

Swachhata Award 
The VPT achieved the second cleanest major port award for the third year in succession during the survey, after the first being New Mangalore Port. The VPT has also received the second place in Swachh Pakhwada 2018 among major ports. Secretary, Minister for Shipping, Gopal Krishna has presented the awards to Chairman, VPT at New Delhi during the awards ceremony on Thursday.

Cruise Terminal
Union Ministry of Tourism has approved the proposal to develop a cruise-cum-coastal cargo terminal at the outer harbour of Visakhapatnam Port. The project is proposed for central financial assistance at an estimated cost of Rs 77 crore.

Under the terminal construction, a new berth of 180 m length with two numbers mooring dolphins on either side to accommodate vessels of 300 m LOA, 37.6 m Beam and 8.1 m draft. Development of backup area of 15,000 sq mtr behind the berth with internal roads, sewer, water supply and drainage system, parking facilities and area illumination.

One of the major Cruise Line Principals has introduced Visakhapatnam in its itinerary Silver Discoverer of Silver Sea Cruises will be calling at Visakhapatnam one-day each in three calls during January to February 2019 (24th January, 17 and 21 February). These maiden calls will provide much required boost to cruise tourism in Visakhapatnam.  

Cargo Traffic
Talking about the growth of cargo handling, Krishna Babu said the target in the present fiscal is 66 million tonnes and an incremental volume of 2.46 MT over 63.54 million tonnes handled during previous fiscal will be realised to achieve the target. A cargo volume of 43.03 MT was handled till November 2018 as against 40.95 million tonnes during corresponding period of previous year, the Chairman claimed.