Youngest terminal in India to own as many as 10 cranes

Gateway Terminals India Pvt. Ltd (GTI), the youngest container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP), recently commissioned two new quay cranes, thereby ramping up its capacity by 5,00,000 TEUs.

GTI celebrated the occasion with its customers by organising an "inauguration" ceremony—of its new equipment.

Congratulating GTI on installing the new equipment, Mr Jin-Li Chung, Managing Director of Hyundai Merchant Marine India Pvt. Ltd, who inaugurated crane 9, remarked, "Hyundai has witnessed GTI’s tremendous success within a short period of 3 years, and it is demonstrating again that even bigger successes can be achieved for its customers in future."

The addition of the two quay cranes, procured from ZPMC of China, makes GTI the youngest terminal in India to have a total of as many as 10 cranes. This milestone, in addition to increasing yard space by almost 2,000 ground slots and commissioning 11 new, eco-friendly, 6-high RTGs, is part of GTI’s plan to offer customers world-class infrastructure and scale up capacity to 1.8 million TEUs in 2009 from 1.3 million TEUs in 2008.

Even in the face of the economic downturn, this demonstrates GTI’s resolve to create additional capacity and, in the process, benefit the trade and customers as quickly as possible, emphasises a release.

Commented Mr Arvind Bhatnagar, CEO of GTI, "We are delighted and proud of the expansions taking place as scheduled. The team is geared to move ahead to take on the challenges posed by the current economic scenario and convert them into opportunities for further improvement and ensure customer delight."

Therefore, with effect from February 1, GTI has announced a host of additional benefits to bring to its customers the advantages of its expansion. These include:

10 days free time for export-laden boxes

6 days free time for import-laden boxes

A 2nd Vessel Identification Advice

3 days free time for empties

Besides, by upgrading infrastructure and equipment, GTI’s berth productivity, which improved from 57.96 moves/hour in January 2008 to 80.31 moves/hour in December 2008, is expected to reach levels of well over 100 moves/hour in 2009.

This will ensure that larger vessels enjoy unparalleled turnaround time, with only 12 hours required for volumes up to 1,800 moves and only 24 hours for volumes up to 4,000+ moves given a 5+ crane split, Exim News Service

reported.

Source: Transportweekly