India is in talks with Russia to open the Chennai Vladivostok maritime corridor aimed at strengthening maritime ties between the two countries, Union Minister Sarabananda Sonowal said on Sunday. The Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister, who was here to review the performance of Chennai Port and Kamarajar Port, launched a number of projects worth Rs 148 crore.
India was in talks with Russia to open the Chennai Vladivostok maritime corridor, he said at the event. The discussion between the two countries was aimed at strengthening maritime trade, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India reaffirms its commitment to rejuvenate its trade and investment potential to boost India’s growth.
The corridor will serve this purpose and act as a conduit for growth and investment cooperation between two historic cities with rich maritime history Chennai and Vladivostok of both countries
Chennai Vladivostok maritime corridor
Sonowal later inaugurated three new projects worth Rs 56 crore at Chennai port and another project at Kamarajar port worth Rs 92 crore & says “ two ports have been performing well in the last four years and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving special emphasis on transformational initiatives in sectors like ports, airways and railways.”
Sonowal unveiled four plaques commemorating the inauguration of the projects at an event held at Chennai Port. The focus given by the center to ports, cargo handling between ports across the country has doubled to 1,650 million metric tonnes annually from 800 million metric tonnes in the last nine years.
To a question, he said that both the ports have set a target to handle 100 million metric tonnes of cargo during the current financial year. FY-2022-23, Kamarajar Port achieved the second highest growth among the 12 major ports. Chennai Port has taken many initiatives to attract container traffic in a highly competitive environment.
At Kamarajar Port, the minister inaugurated the widening and concreting of the access road to the port under the National Infrastructure Pipeline initiative. This project was aimed at ensuring smooth evacuation of cargo and better road connectivity to the port, the report said.