India's NMPT handles 37 mt in 2008-09

The New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) handled 36.69 million tonnes (mt) of traffic during 2008-09 as against 36.02 mt handled during the previous financial year, registering a growth of 1.86 per cent. A press release by NMPT said here on Friday that this is the highest quantity ever handled at the port. The release attributed the increase in traffic to the increased handling of cargoes such as fertiliser, containers, coal, LPG, limestone, iron ore fines, maize, cement and ed ible oil. Container traffic at the port recorded a growth of 33.06 per cent during the year. The port handled 28,555 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers during 2008-09 as against 21,460 TEUS during the previous fiscal. Maize cargo witnessed a growth of 95.82 per cent during the year, and cement cargo 25.23 per cent. The number of vessels handled during 2008-09 stood at 1,184 against 1,144 in the previous fiscal.