KOCHI:
Two containers of relief materials including sanitation items, toiletries, medicines, cloths and food items mobilized and forwarded by Kolkata Port Trust via Coastal Shipping for the flood affected people of Kerala were flagged off by Alphons Kannanthanam, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism in the presence of A.V.Ramana, Chairman (i/c), Cochin Port Trust today )11.09.2018) at a function held at Cochin Port Trust Container Freight Station at Willingdon Island. The containers have been dispatched to Kottayam and Pathanamthita districts of Kerala for distribution to flood affected people.
The function was attended by Goutam Gupta, Traffic Manager, G.Vaidyanathan, Chief Engineer, B.Bhagyanath, Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer, C.Premakumari, Secretary, K.Kunjali, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Capt. J.J.Alappat, Deputy Conservator and Dr.Roy Thomas, Chief Medical Officer.
Union Minister appreciated the efforts taken by the Shipping sector, particularly Cochin Port Trust, in facilitating mobilization and speedy handling of relief materials through the Port. He appealed to the Shipping fraternity to send more useful materials so that the same could be delivered to the needy affected people in Kerala.
A.V.Ramana, Chairman (i/c) recalled that Cochin Port was not affected by the floods and in fact the Port was the only lifeline for bringing relief materials to the State during the initial days.Cochin Port Trust had taken all pre-emptive measures in the wake of severe weather condition including storing of sufficient drinking water and fuel for operations of DG sets, ensuring alternate power supply to operational areas etc.
The Marine and Traffic departments were on high alert and ensured that the cargo handling activities were not affected during the flood situation. As relief materials were arriving the state mainly through coastal shipping, two berths at Cochin Port were earmarked for priority berthing of vessels bringing flood relief materials. Also, two godowns were earmarked for storage of relief materials and medicines, free of charges.
Earlier, six container loads of relief materials were contributed by five major ports (VOC Port Trust, Chennai Port Trust, Kamarajar Port Trust, New Mangalore Port Trust & Cochin Port Trust) under Ministry of Shipping, Govt. of India. Apart from this, three container loads of relief materials sent by shipping fraternity from Tuticorin under the initiative of Ministry of Shipping and one container of relief materials brought from Mundra Port by a shipping company were also delivered for distribution.
Relief materials brought by Naval Ship INS Deepak, INS Mysore, INS Mumbai, INS Sharda and Coast Guard vessels ICGS Vijith and ICGS Vikram were handled at Cochin Port on priority basis. The coastal vessel Swarna Godavari with 50,000 MT crude oil from Mumbai, diverted by BPCL to Cochin Port to meet the fuel demand of Kerala was also given prority berthing. Chairman, Cochin
Port Trust has been taking daily review of the relief activities as well as speedy handling of relief materials through the port.
A relief camp was opened at Sir Robert Bristow Memorial School at Cochin Port where about 66 persons of 25 families from the flood affected areas in Ernakulam district were accommodated. The Doctors of Cochin Port Trust Hospital provided 24×7 medical assistance at the camp including ambulance service and free medicines. A Counseling session was conducted by the Medical
Department on 23/08/2018 to enable the flood victims to face the aftereffects of the devastating flood and to rebuild their lives. They were also taken to show the port infrastructure and explained the functioning of the port on 26/08/2018.
Volunteer teams comprising staff and family members of Cochin Port had extended best support including cooking & serving of food for the inmates. The CISF, CoPT Unit and Fire Service Unit of Cochin Port assisted the camp with transportation facility, water supply etc. The family members of the port community in Willingdon Island took care of the inmates at the camp by preparing and serving food at the Camp.
The members of the Cochin Port fraternity including Customs Dept and other Govt. offices, Cochin Port Social Workers Association, the trade, and well-wishers in the Port area supplied essential utensils, gas stoves, provisions, clothes, toiletries etc to the inmates.
The families accommodated at the relief camp were moved to their houses on 27/08/2018. They were provided with provisions for their homes for the coming 2 months along with kitchen utensils including gas stove and accessories and new clothes. They were transported back to their homes in port’s vehicles.
The Port has contributed Rs.62 lakhs to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund comprising Rs.31 lakhs as employees’ one day salary and an equal amount from Cochin Port Trust funds. Apart from this, the employees of Cochin Port Trust called off their Onam celebrations and contributed the amount collected for the celebrations (Rs.65,000/-) to the relief work.
In the meantime employee volunteers from Cochin Port Trust were engaged in cleaning the flood hit homes in different parts of the district. The SC/ST Federation, Cochin Port Trust Unit distributed relief materials to the affected people.
