The Hindu Business Line : `We'll be a major player in handling box traffic'

THE Jawaharlal Nehru Port is setting new trends in container handling in India. And, with volume of container traffic rising, the port, which handles more than 50 per cent of the country's container traffic, will be playing a major role in the future.

With work on the third container terminal having started and the port proposing a fourth terminal, JNPT is set to become a major container hub in this part of the world. But, the port continues to smart under infrastructure bottlenecks, which have been resulting in incidence of congestion.

Mr Ravi Budhiraja, JNPT Chairman, is however confident that infrastructure bottlenecks would be ironed out and the port would emerge as one of the world's leading container ports in the future. In an interview with Business Line, he dwells at length on the prospects and challenges before the port. Excerpts:

Mr Ravi Budhiraja, Chairman, JNPT

Let us start with JNPT's performance in the last fiscal. How does it compare with the previous year?

In 2004-05, the port achieved a throughput of 32.81 million tonnes, against 31.18 mt in 2003-04 and 26.84 mt in 2002-03. The total container traffic during the year was 28.7 mt, of which the JNPT terminal handled 13.9 mt and the NSICT (Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal) handled 14.8 mt. The other cargoes handled by the port include fertiliser, steel coil, sugar, iron and wood pulp.

How did the port do on the financial front?

It was a good year for us. During the year, the operating income touched Rs 601.10 crore, compared with Rs 579.60 crore in the previous year. There was a slight increase in the operating expenditure at Rs 257.35 crore (, Rs 234.06 crore), which is attributed to the increase in traffic. The net surplus was at an all-time high of Rs 246.76 crore (Rs 203.37 crore).

How do you see the trend in container traffic flow in the current fiscal?

JNPCT along with NSICT has targeted a throughput of 2.45 million TEUs, with a growth rate of 5.5 per cent in 2005-06. With the commissioning of the third container terminal in April 2006, having an estimated capacity of 1.3 million TEUs, the total container handling capacity will increase substantially. JNPT will be playing a major role in container traffic handling in the country.

How is work on the third container terminal progressing?

After obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Shipping in June 2004, a letter of acceptance was issued to Gateway Terminals India Pvt Ltd (GTI), a joint venture between Maersk and Concor. The licence agreement for the project was signed in August 2004. They achieved financial closure within the stipulated time and commenced execution of site works such as, demolition of sheds for constructing a stack yard for the containers reclamation works and jetty modification works. GTI is expected to complete construction and commence operations within the stipulated 24 months. When fully operational, the terminal will have capacity to handle about 1.3 million TEUs.

JNPT has proposed a fourth terminal. What is the status of the project?

It has been estimated that the port would be required to handle container traffic to the tune of 6.8 million TEUs by 2015-16. To handle the traffic after re-development of bulk terminal into a container terminal, the port is planning to develop a fourth container terminal as an extension of the BPCL jetty and a chemical terminal on build, operate, transfer basis. We are in the process of preparing a feasibility report for the development of the fourth terminal and marine chemical terminal through Consulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt Ltd. CES has submitted the inception report and is preparing the feasibility report. The report is expected by October. The first phase involves construction of 700 m of container quay line along with conversion of existing 300 m of liquid cargo berth into container berth so as to develop a quay length of 1,000 m for handling containers. The estimated container handling capacity of the terminal will be 1.5 million TEUs and is likely to be operational by 2010-11. It also includes reclamation of 200 hectares of land and development of 100 hectares of land for yards.

Congestion has been a problem at JNPT during the last two years. With the commissioning of the third and fourth terminals, will the problem not get worse? What steps have the port initiated to solve it?

JNPT has initiated action to ease traffic congestion by developing parking areas, additional buffer yard for containers, widening of roads, and providing separate corridor for passenger vehicles. The works are in different stages of execution. All efforts are being made to ease traffic congestion in forthcoming monsoon. Some of the works like developing a five-hectare parking area and additional buffer yard of 14,000 sq.m will be ready before this monsoon. All other works are scheduled to be completed within 18 months.

The port has plans to widen the existing roads from four lanes to six lanes to handle the increasing traffic, which also include development of parking areas at various locations. The estimated cost of the work is Rs 147 crore.

Further, to improve the road connectivity by widening existing 2 lanes to 4 lanes, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) was formed between JNPT, NHAI and CIDCO. Four-laning of NH - 4B is almost completed and it will be ready by this month-end.

Inadequate supply of rakes by Concor has been one of the factors contributing to the congestion problem. Has the supply position improved?

The average number of rakes supplied by Concor is 9-10 a day. The average number of rakes needed by JNPT to avoid congestion is 12-13 a day. Though Concor has agreed to provide 70 per cent dedicated rakes and 30 per cent mixed rakes for JNPCT and NSICT, they have been giving about 54 per cent dedicated rakes and 46 per cent mixed rakes.

To study the rail facilities at the port and difficulties faced in handling of incoming and outgoing ICD traffic, we have engaged the services of RITES. Their report will be ready by the month-end.

Dedicated goods rail corridor is proposed for faster movement of cargo from the port to Delhi. The approximate length of the rail line is 1,400 km and may be taken up by the Railways at a cost of Rs 5,700 crore.

How do you propose to fund the channel-deepening project?

A proposal to carry out deepening and widening of main harbour channel and JNP channel to handle 6,000 TEU container vessels using tidal window was approved by the Public Investment Board in March. It was decided at the meeting that JNPT might take up this project by raising loans from the market or through its internal resources or combination of both. The cost of this project is about Rs 800 crore. It is likely that the project will be commenced in April 2006 and completed within 27 months.

What are the other developmental projects the port will be taking up in the future?

About 3.6 hectares is being developed for stacking containers behind the shallow water berth at a cost of Rs 9 crore. This will add stacking capacity by 2,400 TEUs. The yard will be put into operation by December 2005.

We are also augmenting the capacity for handling ICD containers by modernising the existing ICD facilities along the railway line No 6 and 8 by constructing pavements and by procuring two RMGCs.

An additional buffer yard is also being developed at a cost of Rs 2 crore, which will add an additional stacking capacity of 900 TEUs.

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