The Hindu Business Line : Cabotage law relaxed to ease congestion at JN Port

AS part of its efforts to ease the congestion at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, the Ministry of Shipping has decided to relax the Cabotage Law, which restricts movement of foreign-flagged vessels along Indian coasts, for movement of containers between the port and any other Indian port.

The Minister for Shipping, Mr T.R. Baalu, who held a meeting with port users on Thursday on his maiden visit to Mumbai after taking charge told presspersons that the relaxation of the Cabotage law would be in force for a period of six months, which could be extended if it was found to help reduce congestion at JNPT.

In another decision, the Ministry wanted Mumbai port and JNPT to join hands to water down the congestion problem. "Feeder vessels having a draft up to 9.5 m and length up to 180 m will be encouraged at Mumbai port, which will reduce its tariff (to attract such vessels from JNPT)," the Minister said.

To help Mumbai port to handle a slice of JNPT-bound vessels, Concor will be commencing rail movement of containers from and to the port on a regular basis.

"To start with, two rakes in a week will be deployed at Mumbai Port and thereafter provide at least one rake per day," according to Mr Baalu.

Further, steamer agents and shipping lines registered with the Customs will be allowed to move containers from both Mumbai port and JNPT without any bank guarantee for an initial period of three months. At present, the Customs allows only those steamer agents and shipping lines handling more than 5,000 TEUs to move the boxes without bank guarantee.

"The Customs authorities have also agreed to waive the requirement of filing for a SMTP (Sub-Manifest Transhipment Permit) by the shipping lines for transhipment of containers from the two terminals at JNPT by rail to any ICD. The waiver has been given on a trial basis for three months to ease the congestion. Concor, which will carry out the transhipment by rail, will provide a daily list of containers moved out of the two terminals to the Customs authorities," Mr Baalu said.

He said it had also been decided to set up a Container Coordination Committee to address issues on movement of containers from the container yards at JNPT and Mumbai port to the various Container Freight Stations (CFSs).

The Minister was hopeful that these measures would help reduce congestion at JNPT.

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