Mumbai, Venice Port authorities ink pact in city

CHENNAI: Adding a new chapter in its chequered history, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Venice Port Authority (Italy) here in the city.L Radhakrishnan, Chairman, JNPT, and Capt Antonio Revedin, senior manager (on behalf of Chairman Paolo Costa) of the Venice Port Authority signed the agreement in the presence of the Union Minister of Shipping G K Vasan, to signal a new era of mutual friendship in maritime activities between India and Italy.Addressing the gathering of port officials, Vasan said, “Today’s event is an important milestone for Indo-Italian trade cooperation and more particularly for collaboration for JNPT and Venice Port Authority. These two ports are entering a new era of mutual friendship in maritime activities.”The expertise of Venice Port Authority in cruise shipping could also be shared with JNPT in order to expand the segment of tourism in our country, Vasan said.“I hope the MoU would help collaborate both the ports in the areas of port operations, port management, marine construction and human resource development,” Vasan added. The MoU is expected to enhance the trade relations between India and Europe particularly Italy and provide opportunity for business of the respective regions to invest in the business as well as to reap the benefits of better shipping services.Co-operation between the ports in the area of container handling and transport as well as in cruise shipping is also expected from the sister port relationship between these two major ports of the world. JNPT handles 55 to 60 per cent of the container trade of India involving about 4.5 million TEUs (Twenty-foot-equivalent) and tonnage of about 70 million. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust also handles the highest quantity of solid cargo in the country. On the other hand, the Port of Venice caters to the Italy and north Adriatic ports as a ‘Nodal Port.’