Kochi, June 7: Cochin Port Trust (CPT) will soon hand over nearly 10 acres of land to the Mumbai-based Harish Kumar and Company for setting up a full-fledged chemicals and solvents storage facility on the port premises. This, being the first major project by a private company, puts the Cochin port well on course to privatisation of its operations.

Harish Kumar and Co, in collaboration with HELM of Germany, will create a storage facility for about 40,000 kilo litres of non-hazardous chemicals. They have assured the CPT a minimum annual throughput of 2.5 lakh tonnes.

The facility will fetch the CPT Rs 25 lakh per annum in land rental charges alone. Currently, Cochin Port has facilities for storing petroleum products -- by Indian Oil Corporation, cashew shell liquid and ammonia.

The Mattancherry workshop area where the new storage facility will come up is being cleared by CPT. The port trust will not have a dedicated berth for chemicals but the South Coal Berth, now underutilised, is being designated for the purpose, CPT sources said.

Harish Kumar has over 25 years of experience in trading chemicals and has put up chemicals storage facilities at Kandla and Mumbai port. However, the Kochi facility will be the biggest project undertaken by them.

Meanwhile, the much-awaited cement handling facility to be set up by Gujarat Ambuja has come out of a protracted legal battle. The court has cleared the project after a Thrissur-based environmentalist filed a public interest litigation against the project on grounds that the project would lead to environmental degradation.

The project was awaiting final clearance from the Centre when the matter was dragged to the court. Quick action from the Centre will see Gujarat Ambuja setting up pneumatic unloaders for cement at the Kochi port. The project is estimated to cost Rs 15 crore and will be used mainly as a means of marketing Gujarat Ambuja Cement in South India at reduced transport costs. A similar proposal by Larsen and Toubro had been dropped after objections from the Centre.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.