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Vinod Mathew

Mr P.N. Roychowdhury

AHMEDABAD, July 29

WHEN Mr P.N. Roychowdhury took over as the Vice- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) in June 1999, the nodal agency in charge of all minor port operations in the State handled a cargo of 25.08 million tonnes.

The last fiscal saw the cash-rich GMB handle 82.54 million tonnes, resulting in a net profit of Rs 102.61 crore. And now, the port authority has trained its guns on a target of 100 million tonnes for the next fiscal.

In an interview to Business Line, Mr Roychowdhury shared his views on steering hitherto unwieldy organisation into more profitable waters.

GMB has been setting a scorching pace in the last three years. How do you propose to sustain this growth rate in the coming years?

The period between 1999-00 and 2001-02 saw the cargo handled by GMB grow from 48.8 million tonnes to 73.18 million tonnes and then touch 82.54 million tonnes. While it may be difficult to sustain such a growth rate on regular basis, we hope to cross 92 million tonnes this year and 100 million tonnes in the next.

Now, not only do we account for 25 per cent of all cargo handled by Indian ports, our revenue, too, has been looking up, having posted a turnover of Rs 190 crore in the last fiscal.

Beginning 2004, the profitability of our operations will get a further boost as some of our ports will begin handling value-added freight such as LNG (Dahej, Hazira) and container cargo (Mundra).

Not all greenfield ports in Gujarat have taken off. Does this mean a slowdown in the privatisation drive?

It may be true that one or two ports are lagging behind, but most of these are up and running. Under the privatisation project, a total investment of about Rs 22,250 crore was envisaged for the development of seven ports.

Of this, Pipavav (Rs 2,342 crore) and Mundra (Rs 4,974 crore) have successfully completed their first phases. The next two ports that are scheduled to become operational in 2004 are the LNG terminal-based ports at Hazira (Rs 3,442 crore) and Dahej (Rs 3,130 crore).

At Dahej, the LNG tank construction has reached 60 per cent completion while breakwater and jetty construction will commence by September. At Hazira, land reclamation has seen a virtual island being formed out of the sea and piling work for LNG tanks will soon get under way.

Both Dholera (Rs 2,866 crore) and Positra (Rs 3,888 crore) are in the final stages of clearances from various departments. The only blip has been the Rs 1,611-crore Maroli port project which is hanging fire as the promoter Natelco's partner, Unocal, has pulled out. Even here, we have further extended the LoI for two years.

What is the status of projects like the Ro-Ro ferry service across the Gulf of Cambay and the Maritime Institute for merchant marines and logistics experts?

The Ro-Ro ferry service did not elicit any response when global tenders were invited for private participation in the late 90s. Since then, GMB has got a feasibility study done on the project whose draft final report has just come out. This report has recommended a three-way ferry between Dahej, Hazira and Gogha.

However, the present traffic may not be sufficient to justify such a project and much would depend on Dahej being developed as a marine hub.

The Marine Institute is very much on cards as the Rotterdam Shipping and Transport College has expressed interest in a possible alliance and GMB is in talks with some domestic corporate houses to join as co-promoters.

Will the development of the Pipavav Shipbreaking & Engg Ltd (PSEL), which is fast nearing completion, come at the cost of the one at Alang?

The facilities are not comparable, as Alang breaks vessels in 8,000-10,000 LDT range, while PSEL will be playing host to much larger vessels.

The former now accounts for almost 350 vessels a year, whereas the latter would be able to handle no more than four. As the name suggests, the Pipavav unit may go in for other services which are more value-added than merely dismantling ships.

Meanwhile, Alang, which continues to be a major source of revenue for GMB (Rs 25-30 crore per year), has got its act together and is shaping to be a less dangerous destination as the number of accidental deaths have fallen from 40 to 10 per annum.

When will GMB go in for a bifurcation of roles as regulator and operator? How about the restructuring of the board as per the recommendation of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells into a leaner outfit?

The bifurcation of GMB's roles, between that of regulator and operator, has been pending for a while with the Government. The $6,00,000 Dutch aid programme called Port Development of Gujarat (PODEG) is working towards the goal of ensuring a level playing field.

GMB would also be soon coming up with a VRS in two phases, where the present 3,400-strong workforce would stand diminished at 1,800 before we go in for hiring some 300 new hands who would be specialists with particular skill sets to match GMB's new requisitions.

GMB had taken equity positions in some enterprises like the Dahej-based Gujarat Chemical Port Terminal Co Ltd. Will there be any more such ventures?

Currently, we are considering taking up an equity position in the gas pipeline network being laid by Gujarat State Petronet Ltd. As of now, we plan to take a 20 per cent stake at Rs 60 crore in the Rs 900-crore project.

This would give us much synergy as the two LNG terminals at Hazira and Dahej would be dependent on the gas pipeline to evacuate regassified gas from the landed points to end-users.

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