The Hindu Business Line : Lack of equipment slowing Kochi port cargo operations

A PILE-UP of imported raw cashew nut consignments and absence of sufficient back-up equipment for cargo handling have been affecting the operations of the container terminal at Kochi port in the last few weeks.

Sources in the shipping fraternity said that almost all the stacks in the Ernakulam Wharf of the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal (RGCT) are occupied by these imported consignments meant for various processing factories in Kollam, as the factories are depending on Kochi now for their import needs from West Africa on account of the season there.

The port is getting around 250-300 TEUs of raw cashew on a daily basis in the last few weeks and the authorities are finding it difficult to allot sufficient space to store other cargoes. The absence of new equipment as well as lack of maintenance in the existing ones has further deteriorated the situation, resulting in the slowdown of delivery of raw cashew to importers.

This has affected the productivity of other container vessels berthing in the RGCT. The other day, the sources said, a mainline vessel with 480 teus arrived directly from West Africa and had to remain in the berth for 8 shifts (two and a half days) to discharge the cargo. It could have taken less than 12 hours, if there were proper equipment in the terminal, the sources said.

Even though, vessel operators had brought additional relief vessels to clear both export and import cargo, the shortage of equipment had also delayed sailing of the relief vessels. The sources also alleged that the equipment operators employed by the port are giving priority only for clearing export cargo and not for import consignments to take it out from the port premises.

Admitting that lack of sufficient equipment had slowed down the operations in RGCT, Mr A. Janardhana Rao, Deputy Chairman, said that the port is now managing with minimum equipment, including three transfer cranes, two heavy duty reach stackers and light duty reach stackers. If more than four container vessels anchored at a time, the only option is to share the equipment, which would ultimately result in the delay in vessel departure as well as cargo handling, he said.

Regarding the piling up of cargo, Mr Rao said that this was because of the arrival of boxes in the recent period as the port had witnessed a 15 per cent growth in container traffic in the first quarter of the current fiscal. This is one of the reasons for lack of storage space and the port is taking serious efforts to clear the cargo on the same day itself. Moreover, the management has also taken a decision not to go in for more investments to procure new equipment anticipating the early clearance for the container transhipment terminal project at Vallarpadam, he added.