Chennai, Mar 17 (IANS): The container shipment business at V.O. Chidambanar port in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi has been affected by the economic crisis that has gripped neighbouring Sri Lanka, say stakeholders.

Crisis has gripped the port as due to sudden inflation in Sri Lanka, the movement of cargo shipment at Colombo port has come down drastically. More than 70 per cent of the containers transshipped in Colombo originate from Thoothukudi, which does not have berthing facility for large containers ships. Hence, it depends mainly on Colombo port, with cargoes from Thoothukudi ferried to Colombo in small vessels and a large number of trips are undertaken from Thoothukudi to Colombo and back.

The cargo that reaches Colombo in small vessels is loaded in large mother vessels to be taken to international destinations including in Europe and Africa.

According to booking agents and cargo clearance agents, around 4,000 containers, filled with cargo, are lying at Thoothokudi port due to a lack of vessels to ply.

Talking to IANS, shipping firm owner, Rajesh Kumar said that companies in the island nation were not able to pay for the services of the vessels that were already used.

"Most of the companies have run out of US dollar reserves as inflation has gripped the island nation. This has also snowballed the economic crisis in Sri Lanka but the sad part is that this is affecting our container movement and even perishable goods are waiting at the Thoothukudi port."

He also said that the spiralling economic crisis in the island nation has engulfed the export and import sector of India with special emphasis on south India.

Industry bodies and shipping agents have already requested the Union government to launch feeder vessels to Singapore to mitigate the crisis.

K. Rajashekharan, a social activist in Thoothukudi, said: "It is very important to develop Thoothukudi port into a major transshipment hub and reduce the dependency on the Colombo port."