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India:JNPT plans for a new terminal |
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2004-9-22
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Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has set sights on having a fourth terminal, months after it received clearance for the third.
“It’s still at a nebulous stage. But it shows our intention to think ahead and plan for the future,” said Neera Saggi, JNPT Deputy Chairman.Saggi has been swamped with complaints from the industry about the congestion at a port that is the key gateway for foreign trade.
Even the move to award the contract to build and manage the third JNPT terminal to the Maersk-Concor combine has raised hue and cry from within the industry. The industry feels that Concor should invest more in wagons to ferry containers to the hinterland than in the project.
The Mumbai’s port terminals bottlenecks will derail government’s ambitious target of doubling exports, they say.
JNPT, Saggi said, recently decided to give two hectares to NS-ICT as the possible site for a fourth port terminal, which will help ease the congestion at the two city ports.
She said the backlog of import containers at the existing terminals of JNPT has come down substantially, from an all-time high of 11,000 to 327 at present. The port has also implemented the order of the Tariff Authority of Major Ports on reducing vessel-related charges by 10 per cent.It took effect from this month.
“We have flagged and flogged our equipment to get to this level,” Neera said. According to her, the problem arose after massive consignments of scrap landed at the ports. Since trucks could not carry them because of their weight, they piled up till the railways hauled them away.
The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council had recently highlighted the chaos at JNPT to show the extent to which the infrastructure facilities are lacking. “Cargo was unattended for more than three months,” the council said.
For exporters, improvement in port facilities is a must as shipments of textiles and clothing increase after the end of quotas early next year.
“If our ports are not equipped to handle the expected rise in exports, we would only end up contributing to the diversion of trade away from India,” council chairman Lalit P. Desai said. |
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