Now most of the vessels that call at Tuticorin are feeder vessels from Colombo and Singapore and other major ports. The Rs 202-crore dredging project, aided by the OECF of Japan, is intended to dredge the approach channel and harbour basin to 12.5m and 11.9m depth, respectively, to handle ships up to 10.7m draught.

The port has already handed over the newly built berth No 7 to equip and operate it to a joint venture of PSA Corporation of Singapore and Sical (South India Corporation Agencies Ltd) of the Mac group.

The berth is 370m long and has a draught of 10.7m and it is capable of attracting mother vessels carrying up to 2000 (TEUs).

The berth is equipped with container quay crane and yardgantry cranes and is expected to handle 1.5 lakh TEUs annually. Within six years it might be handling over three lakh TEUs. The port will also be building another cargo berth at a cost of over Rs 46 crore. It is to be ready by 2001.

In order to handle smaller vessels having draught of 6m and less and having lengths of 45m to 110m, the port has taken up construction of a shallow draught berth at 7m depth at a cost of Rs 6.82 crore.

One positive offshoot of the developments at the harbour is increased customs collection. The Tuticorin Custom House hopes to collect over Rs 260 crore during 1999-2000. During 1998-99, the collections of Rs 254.31 crore was 26 per cent more than that in the previous year.

The customs revenue in Tuticorin port is solely from imports of items like copper ore, machinery, electronic goods, textile yarn, plastics, timber, steel scrap and waste paper.

Most of the export cargo from this port are duty free. During 1998-99, the Custom House has paid an amount of Rs 126.92 crore asduty drawback to exporters comprising 18,000 cases. The timber trade has almost shifted entirely to Tuticorin. India imports large quantities of timber from Malaysia and Indonesia. The Tuticorin Customs, according to informed sources, collected over Rs 25 crore from the newly introduced five per cent duty on timber imports.