The terminal is being built by the joint venture company PSA Sical TerminalsLtd. It is a join venture among PSA India Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiaryof the PSA group of companies, South India Corporation (Agencies) Ltd, partof the SPic group, and Nur Investment Pte Ltd of Singapore. The equity ofthe Rs 100-crore project is divided among the three partners into 57.5 percent, 37.5 per cent and five per cent, respectively.

S R Ramakrishnan, managing director of the terminal told The FinancialExpress that probably this should be the first terminal to have thecomputer-integrated terminal operation system (CITOS). This will provide thecustomers online and real time terminal management systems, high operationalefficiency in the handling of ships and containers and accurate and reliablemonitoring of container movements.

The terminal will have the state of the art equipment and operating systemsto deliver fast and reliable services to meet the needs and requirements ofboth customers and the shipping industry. The facilities for the shippinglines and shippers would be similar to those high quality value-addedservices that PSA terminals in Singapore and world wide provide.

He said, commissioning of the cranes, installation of software, testing andstabilisation of the operating systems are in progress. The operating staffare being trained both in Singapore and the terminal itself. The terminal ishaving a 370 m long berth. The channel depth is 12.5 m, basin depth 11.9 mand maximum vessel draft of 10.7 m.

PSA is also a strategic partner of the Port of Pipavav in Gujarat, the firstprivate sector port in the country.

Ong Seow Leong regional manager, international business division of PSA saidhis company was keen on taking up more projects in India, though right nowno new project is under consideration.

Tuticorin port has 10 berths for general cargo. Three are dedicated forliquids and chemicals.

The PSA and Sical team are in Chennai participating in the secondinternational conference on `Integrated Logisitics & supply chainmanagement', and exhibition, being organised by CII.