The Hindu Business Line : JN Port box terminal stacks up record traffic

EVEN AS the premier Jawaharlal Nehru Port battles congestion (more in the container yard than in the berths), the government-run box terminal has quietly touched a new high in box handling in October than the neighbouring Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), operated by global major P&O Ports.

According to official figures, the container terminal run by JN Port (JNPCT), having three berths with a combined quay length of 680 metres, handled 96,508 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in October against 83,014 TEUs by P&O Ports.

A Shipping Ministry official said the JNPCT has been averaging around 90,000 TEUs for each of the seven months this fiscal, since April, while the daily throughput is in excess of 3,000 TEUs. In fact, from April 1 to November 18, the JNPCT handled 7,29,978 TEUs while NSICT touched 7,60,118 TEUs.

The incremental growth in container throughput at the port so far this fiscal is estimated at 6-7 per cent, the official said, adding that the box volumes at the port has been growing at the rate of 19-20 per cent annually against the national average of 13-15 per cent, making it the premier container port accounting for 55-60 per cent of the total box traffic in the country.

Going by this trend, JN Port should easily surpass the 2.26-million-TEU throughput achieved in 2003-04, out of which NSICT accounted for 12,30,555 TEUs and the JNPCT handled 10,38,434 TEUs.

Confident of the JNPCT crossing the one million TEU mark this fiscal as well, the official said that this has been possible "despite all the difficulties associated with the decision-making process in a Departmental Undertaking of the Government as compared to the private sector."

The JNPCT has 29 cranes to handle containers including 18 rubber-tyre gantry cranes (12 owned and six leased), three rail-mounted gantry cranes and eight quay cranes, against NSICT's 29, two and eight respectively.

All the eight quay cranes deployed by NSICT are state-of-the-art`17 across', capable of handling bigger vessels with the capacity to lift and store more boxes.

Of the eight quay cranes commissioned by the JNPCT, only two are `17 across' and the remaining six are `13 across', able to handle only smaller vessels and fewer boxes at a time.

"Despite the constraints, the productivity of the JNPCT has gone up with the terminal clocking 17 moves per hour, comparable to the 22 moves per hour of NSICT."

The official expects the congestion at the JN Port to continue till the third container terminal being developed by the Maersk A/S-Concor consortium starts operations in about two years. According to the latest plans, Maersk-Concor is expected to start part operations at the new terminal by January/February 2006 from a single berth initially.

Meanwhile, the JN Port Trust authorities are awaiting approval from the Public Investment Board (PIB) and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for undertaking a Rs 600-crore widening and deepening of the port channel, which is essential to attracting main line vessels and making the JN Port a hub on the west coast.

The implementation of the dredging project will also have a bearing on the fourth container terminal being planned by the Port Trust.

The JNPT has prepared a detailed project report (DPR) for the dredging project for which the Union Government has accorded environmental clearance.

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