Chennai Port will get its first battery-operated Green Tug in two years, a move to shift away from the conventional diesel-powered tugs, thereby cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Officials said the high-powered specialised vessels, harbour tugs in ports, aid in a host of operations ranging from helping pilots with docking, undocking, towing huge ships, and various other auxiliary services. Chennai Port, which is now equipped with three diesel-powered tugs, will have the battery-operated fourth one by 2028.

The push to procure such tugs and switch to greener alternatives came when the Ministry of Port, Shipping, and Waterways launched the Green Tug Transition Program (GTTP) two years back. This initiative comes as part of “Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047,” wherein the goal is that, by 2030, the carbon emissions from port vessels have to come down by 30 per cent. 

The Ministry plans to change all the tugs operating in major ports across the country to green tugs to bring in an eco-friendly fleet by the end of 2040. This project will be carried out in five phases.

Some of the country’s major ports, including Chennai, in the country have already commenced the work to procure these tugs.

Chennai Port Authority had floated bids by the end of 2025, and sources said the lowest bidder has emerged and the contract will be awarded shortly.

The first battery-operated tug with a 60-tonne capacity will be delivered to the port in two years. The firm will be responsible for manning, operating, maintaining, and managing the tug for a period of 15 years. The tug may also be engaged for berthing, unberthing, or serve as a standby as fire float, oil dispersant spraying boat as well, officials added.

About 25-27 % of the work has been completed on the 21-km double-tier Chennai Port-Maduravoyal elevated corridor and it will be ready by November 2027, S. Viswanathan, chairperson of the Chennai Port Authority said.

Though the project was slated for completion in December 2024, it has been riddled with delays.

While addressing the media, Mr. Viswanathan said, when the monsoon season sets in, there is an advisory of the Water Resources Department to slow down the work so that the local public are not affected. Hence, for a couple of months during this period, the work is slightly affected. Also, the work is carried out amidst challenges such as restrictions in movement of trucks during the day due to traffic. However, Mr. Viswanathan said, the work has picked up pace now and been going on well without any issue.

“This corridor will definitely serve the purpose because at Chennai Port, the cargo volume is increasing. The efficiency of the port will significantly go up [when this project becomes a reality],” he added.

Talking about the effect of the vessel traffic and cargo volume due to the war in West Asia, he said, there has been a bit of an impact for some of the commodities. J.P. Irene Cynthia, managing director of Kamarajar Port Limited said, the war in West Asia is affecting the automobile export; nearly 40% of the automobile export goes from Kamarajar Port to gulf countries. “[This export] is not going now. Hence, we have provided additional space for storage. We are supporting them for transshipment. We have done a waiver of demurrage. In other cargo, we are not seeing much impact,” she added.

A total of 107 million metric tonnes of cargo was handled by Chennai Port and Kamarajar Port together in the financial year 2025-26 exceeding the throughput of 103.37 million metric tonnes the previous year. Also, both ports together recorded a combined income from operations surpassing ₹2,400 crore in the financial year 2025-26.

Mr. Viswanathan noted that a car is exported every 80 seconds from Chennai and Kamarajar Ports.

He noted that projects, including upgradation and mechanisation of coastal berths through PPP and widening and strengthening of the Jawahar Dock entrance and multilevel car park through PPP has been planned. Ms. Cynthia said, at Kamarajar Port, projects like new bulk terminal and upgradation of general cargo berth will be implemented in future.