in container handling, the port is added with the second container terminal with a capacity to handle 1.5 million TEUs. The port is also planning a mega container terminal, capable of handling 4 million TEUs per annum expected to be operational from 2013, when the first phase of the project will be completed. The full project will be completed by 2017. When the city of Madras was renamed as Chennai in 1996, the Madras Port Trust followed suit and was renamed as Chennai Port Trust. In 2000, the port began to handle pure-car-carrier shipments of automobiles. In 2003, the 200 m naval berth was given for 30-year lease. The 2004 tsunami devastated the shores of the port, taking many lives and permanently altering the coastline. Location and geography Chennai Port lies on a flat coastal plain known as the Eastern Coastal Plains on the east coast of the Indian peninsula known as the Coromandel Coast in the Bay of Bengal. The bed slope is fairly flat. The port is situated on the thermal equator and is also coastal, which prevents extreme variation in seasonal temperature. The climate is tropical, specifically tropical wet and dry, and for most of the year, the weather is hot and humid, with temperatures ranging from a maximum of 42 °C in May to a minimum of 18 °C in January. The mean minimum temperature is 18 °C in January and 26.8 °C in May. The mean highest temperature is 29.3 °C in December and 39.6 °C in May. The port gets most of its seasonal rainfall from the northeast monsoon winds, from mid-September to mid-December. Occasionally, cyclones in the Bay of Bengal hit the coast. The average annual rainfall in the region is about 1298.11 mm, with 443.5 mm during southwest monsoon (June–September), 753.1 mm during northeast monsoon (October–December), 37.3 mm during winter season (January–February) and 64.2 mm during hot weather (March–May). The monthly average varies from 7 mm in April to 308 mm in November. Humidity ranges from 63 to 83 percent during January–March, from 57 to 72 percent during April–June and from 70 to 81 percent during October–December. The tides in the port area are semi-diurnal in nature, that is, occurrence of two high and two low waters every day. The spring tides are up to . The mean tidal range varies from 0.914 m to 1.219 m at spring and from 0.805