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Santanu Sanyal

KOLKATA, May 6

THE Union Shipping Minister, Mr Vedprakash P. Goyal, who reviewed the operations of Kolkata port at a meeting with a cross-section of users, announced that Mr M.A. Bhaskarachar, the Deputy Chairman of Kolkata Port Trust in-charge of the Kolkata Dock System (KDS), would act as the nodal officer for coordinating with various departments of both KDS and Haldia dock to redress the grievances of the users.

The interaction with the users on Sunday left the Minister convinced that the high cost of operation of the port as well as the mafia raj, particularly in the KDS, were the two major problems facing the users. Some of the users complained that there had been flight of certain types of traffic from Kolkata to other ports because of these two problems.

Talking to Business Line at the end of the meeting, the Minister said that the issue of rationalisation of port charges could be taken up with the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) though he was not sure if the port charges, given the kind of operations undertaken at Kolkata port, could be reduced to any significant extent. The extortion problem facing the users in the dock areas in the city would be taken up with the West Bengal Government, he said.

While the high cost of operation could be attributed partly to the huge surplus labour in KDS, the Minister also felt the problem could not be resolved so easily. The huge pension burden too was proving to be a drag on the port's resources. There had been a suggestion to create a corpus from the sale of lands to take care of the pension burden.

However, he emphasised, the premium port lands could not be sold at a throwaway price. The optimum utilisation had to be ensured in this matter, he said and indicated that a proper scheme for the disposal of the port land was being worked out. The need for round-the-clock Customs facilities at the port too had been emphasised by some users, he said.

Various representatives voiced their grievances. For example, Mr H.P. Nopany, President of Association of Shipping Interest (ASIC), the body of shipping lines and shipping agents, drew the attention of the Minister to the exclusion of the ASIC representative from the reconstituted board of KPT. The Minister felt that old faces must make room for the new ones and suggested the constitution of a consultative committee to accommodate those left out in the new board.

But neither ASIC nor the port trust management was impressed. An ASIC member felt that the proposed consultative committee would be a toothless organisation and, therefore, would serve no purpose. A spokesman for KPT felt that such a committee would create more problems than solving them.

Mr S.C. Saxena, Vice-President of Eastern India Shippers Association and also Managing Director of TM International Logistics Ltd, stressed the need for a full-fledged Customs House at Haldia dock. He also urged the Minister to take up with the appropriate authorities the need for extending duty relief on the import of tyre-mounted mobile harbour cranes.

Mr A Bhatt of Patvolk wondered if there was any need for developing a new port at Kulpi when huge idle capacity was already there at KDS complete with 28 berths. The Minister replied that he could not comment on it as private entrepreneurs were developing Kulpi port.

Mr S. Roychowdhury, General Secretary of West Bengal Inland Water Transport Association, drew the attention to several issues such as the restriction on the vessel size for undertaking lighter age at Daimond Harbour, the need for rationalisation of the scale of rates for IWT vessels, cargo-related charges as well as Customs charges, the need for a new barge jetty at KDS and mooring facility in the river and the night navigation facilities.

A section of officers of KPT, however, felt that the meeting was reduced to the level of port's operations group meeting with several users only discussing insignificant operational details instead of touching upon the macro-level issues. For example, no questions were raised on dredging, the subsidy on dredging or the problem of the river. Earlier, Mr Goyal visited the Rajabagan Dockyard of the Central Inland Water Transport Corporation. He was shown around various dry-docks, ship-building and ship-repairing facilities of the yard.

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