The Hindu Business Line : JN Port congestion: Commerce Ministry meet draws blank

THE meeting convened by the Commerce Ministry here on Tuesday to discuss the congestion problem facing the container terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru port failed to come up with measures to ease the situation.

"It was more of a brain storming meeting chaired by the new Commerce Secretary, Mr S.N. Menon. It is now expected that a few decisions to ease the congestion at the port will be taken by the high-level Task Force set up by the Standing Committee for Promotion of Exports during its meeting slated for Wednesday in Mumbai," an official who attended today's meeting told Business Line. During the meeting, the Commerce Secretary said that the evacuation of a large number of import containers lying inside the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) was a top priority for the Government since this was affecting exports due to frequent closure of the export gates of the private terminal run by P&O Ports.

"This is the main concern of the Commerce Ministry," the Commerce Secretary told the gathering.

During the meeting, several suggestions were discussed to de-congest the yard by first removing the import containers lying inside the terminal so that export containers could be allowed entry.

Since officials from NSICT were not present at the meeting, it was decided that Wednesday's meeting of the Task Force would work out strategies and recommend them to the Ministry.