The Hindu Business Line : Port facilities need to be shored up quickly — Mr N. K. Raghupathy, Chairman, Tuticorin Port Trust

The Tuticorin port handled a record traffic throughput of 15.81 million tonnes during 2004-05 against last year's 13.68 million tonnes, an increase of 15.59 per cent. The port also achieved a record container throughput by handling 3.07 lakh TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) in 2004-05 against 2.53 lakh TEUs in 2003-04 — an increase of 21.05 per cent.

The higher traffic is, however, putting a strain on the port infrastructure, says Mr N. K. Raghupathy, Chairman, Tuticorin Port Trust (TPT).

The port exceeded 100 per cent capacity utilisation and manpower productivity has reached levels from where it cannot be improved further. And, for the fist time in three years, there was a drop in productivity last fiscal, he adds.

To meet the traffic growth the port trust plans to invest Rs 830 crore over the next three years on port developments. Mr N. K. Raghupathy spoke to Business Line on the action plan.

Excerpts from the interview:

How do you assess the Tuticorin port's performance last fiscal?

Last fiscal the port handled 15.81 million tonnes whereas the assessed capacity in the port is only 15.80 million tonnes.

We achieved more than 100 per cent capacity utilisation. Though we were happy about the growth and profitability, the productivity went up by only 5 per cent whereas it was in double digits the previous two fiscals. Productivity growth in the last three years did not keep pace with traffic growth.

How do measure productivity?

We have two yardsticks — manpower and machines — that are measured in terms of per ship berth day output (the effective time a ship spent in the berth, and cargo handled during the day). This was 3,900 tonnes in 2001-02, which increased to 4,403 in 2002-03 and to 5,040 tonnes in 2003-04.

However, last year's growth was only around 5 per cent to 5,295 tonnes, which indicates that manpower productivity has reached a level from where it cannot be improved further.

Hence, the productivity can only come from machinery that we have at cargo handling. This also highlights the need for more mechanisation. The other indication to assess the port's efficiency is the ship turnaround time (the time it takes for the ship to get loaded/unloaded in hours). Unfortunately, for the first time in the last three years it increased to 2.2 days last fiscal.

On the one hand, there was cargo growth of 15.6 per cent, on the other, we were able to improve productivity only by 5.3 per cent. We also reached 100 per cent utilisation last year.

What does all this mean for the port?

This indicates that there is a strain on the port's infrastructure; it is not able to cope with the traffic growth. We had anticipated this and have been planning for this eventuality.

What is your action plan to improve things at the port?

In the next three years, about Rs 830 crore is to be invested in the port for various development works, including dredging at a cost of Rs 450 crore, which needs to be financed by the government.

We may not be averse to sharing the cost with the government, if the government is not inclined to fully finance the project.

In addition, Rs 235 crore will come from the port trust resources for construction of berth nine, north cargo berth, three shallow berths to handle smaller vessels, replacement of machinery and tug procurement.

Last month we advertised for a Rs 18-crore road improvement project. The primary component of this will be laying a four-lane concrete road from port boundary to the security gate.

We will soon issue a tender for construction of berth number nine with a capacity to handle 1.5 million tonnes a year of general cargo. It will be designed in such a way that it can be converted at short notice for handling containers. This will be at a cost of Rs 36 crore.

We are also replacing some of the machinery, including three wharf cranes, two ten-tonne cranes and one six-tonne crane at a cost of Rs 30 crore.

How was container growth last year?

The private container terminal operated by PSA-Sical handled 3.07 lakh TEUs in 2004-05, a 20 per cent increase over previous year. We expect that such a growth will be maintained this year also.

Productivity at the container terminal is around 30 TEUs an hour, but the average for the year could be 25 moves, against a national average of 18.

Tuticorin is one of the best-connected Indian ports with connection to about 40 international ports, other than connections to Kochi, Kandla, JNPT and Karachi, in the Indian sub-continent. We have five main line container vessels calling at the port — four on a weekly basis and one that makes ad hoc calls.

What is your action plan to meet the increased container traffic?

We are planning to convert the eighth berth into a container terminal at a cost of Rs 150 crore, which will come from the private sector on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis.

The Shipping Ministry has given its approval for this, and we will shortly issue advertisements for competitive bidding.

We were in the planning stage so far, but are now getting into execution, because we want to prepare ourselves to handle more mainline container vessels.

With larger vessels coming into the global shipping fleet, do you have adequate draft in the port?

We need to improve the draft in the port to 12.8 metre from 10.7 metre to handle larger bulk and container vessels (up to 4,500 TEUs). A draft of 12.8 metre will allow the port to handle break-bulk and Panamax size vessels.

A detailed project report for this is ready. It will be placed before the TPT board this month, and later sent to the Centre for approval.

You had plans to construct a north cargo berth. What is its status?

The north cargo berth will be a captive berth for the Neyveli Lignite Corporation. They have already prepared a detailed project report. However, we cannot wait for them forever.

Unless they give us a firm commitment by the end of this year, we may be inclined to go in for a bulk cargo berth.

We do believe that in the next couple of years there will be a requirement for another berth for handling bulk cargo with a draft of 12.8 metre.

What is the status of the outer harbour?

There has been some development on this. We want some major infrastructure in place by 2010-2011 to match whatever facilities there are in Colombo or Vallarpadam.

For the past six months we have been seriously discussing with the Ministry of Shipping the need for an outer harbour.

There is a general consensus for preparing a feasibility report on this and on seeking the Ministry's approval to offer the entire project, including dredging, construction of breakwaters, quays and equipment, on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis.

The idea is to have about 2.5 km quay length to handle containers, bulk or break bulk cargo. We would like to leave it to the bidder to suggest what type of cargo will be handled in the outer harbour.

We do expect calling for expression of interest by October or November this year after getting the Ministry's approval.

What is the manpower strength in the port?

As far as port workers are concerned, we have reached the optimum level below which we cannot reduce further.

We have about 1,400 port employees and about 1,300 cargo-handling workers. In the case of latter, if we reach 1,100, that will be optimum.

Last year around 150 employees opted for the VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) and over the last two years we have been able to reduce the size of the cargo handling labour pool by 150 through a special VRS. This will be a continuing process.

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