Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Nov 14, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Nov 14, 2005 |
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Logistics
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Interview `In range and diversity, few ports can match KDS' Mr M. A. Bhaskarachar, Deputy Chairman, Kolkata Dock System Santanu Sanyal
The Kolkata port has two dock systems — the Kolkata Dock System (KDS), comprising Netaji Subhas Dock and Kidderpore Dock, and the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC). There is one Chairman for the Kolkata port as a whole but two Deputy Chairmen, one each for the KDS and the HDC. Mr M A Bhaskarachar, the Deputy Chairman in charge of KDS, spoke to Business Line on a range of issues. Excerpts from the interview: You have been in charge at KDS for nearly four years. How would describe your experience all these years? I came from the New Mangalore port which, compared to the Kolkata port, is much smaller. Indeed, KDS itself is a full port. It is on the Hooghly river but handles mostly sea-going vessels. The draft of the river ranges from a low of 7.5 metres to as high as 50 metres (at the Sandheads) which no other Indian port can claim to have. It handles all kinds of cargoes, bulk, both dry and liquid, break-bulk, containers, logs, coastal traffic, IWT traffic, the list can be fairly long. We also handle imports and exports of Nepal and Bhutan. The size of KDS is huge — it has a huge land area, a large workforce and an extensive railway and road network. KDS has five dry docks. I do not know how many ports in the country have such facilities. In terms of range and diversity, few other ports can match KDS. My experience has been very rewarding. What has been the performance of KDS so far this year? The overall traffic growth so far in the current year has been 12.6 per cent at 4.3 million tonnes (mt) compared to 3.82 mt in the same period last year. We hope to cross 11 mt by the end of March next year compared to a little less than 10 mt in 2004-05. This will be possible because the crude lighterage operation at the Sandheads, the mouth of the Hooghly river, has started for 2005-06. In 2004-05, we handled about 4.6 mt of crude by way of lighterage operation. We hope to handle almost the same quantity this fiscal. We've also started handling iron ore for exports. The ore is being brought to KDS by railway rakes from the mines in Orissa. We've so far handled nine rakes. Our target is to achieve a throughput of 1.2 lakh tonnes by March next year. And containers... The growth of container traffic has been as high as 35 per cent — 125,307 TEUs (till November 8) compared to 92,626 TEUs in the same period last year. Is the growth of container traffic at KDS at the expense of Haldia dock? No, I'll not agree with this view. Haldia, after all, is a bulk handling port whereas container is a natural traffic for KDS it being located within the city. For some reason, Haldia succeeded in attracting container traffic in the past but we are getting it back. Besides, it will be wrong to presume that there has been no growth of container traffic at Haldia. Maybe the rate of growth is not as high as KDS. What are the various initiatives being taken to boost the traffic of KDS ? We've initiated several measures to boost, both directly and indirectly, the earnings of KDS. For example, all important roads within the dock system are being upgraded with paver blocks for the benefit of road transporters. We intend to spend about Rs 25 crore — Rs 10 crore on road improvement and another Rs 15 crore on acquisition of equipment as soon as possible. A truck terminal is being set up outside the dock area and a new gate is being opened at NSD to ease congestion. We will construct two additional jetties at Diamond Harbour. We'll acquire a pilot vessel to facilitate movement of river pilots between the Sandheads and the dock. The operation of the dry docks is being revamped. The rates, both marine- related and cargo-related, have been rationalised to benefit the users. There are so many other schemes on the anvil. I've no doubt that within two years from now, KDS will be a different dock system. What is your biggest headache? Our biggest headache is to meet the pension liability. The port has a total of 32,000 pensioners, more than the present workforce. It costs nearly Rs 150 crore every year to meet the liability. True, the cost is shared equally between HDC and KDS. But, then, HDC handles much more traffic — four times as much, an estimated 40 mt compared to our 10 mt or so and its earnings are, therefore, more. Why don't you leverage your huge real-estate to create a pension fund? We've no problems. Let some one take over our huge real-estate at the market rate and we'll be happy. The sale proceeds will be enough to create a pension fund to meet our liability. There are people who have set their eyes on our land but unfortunately they want everything free of cost. How can that be?
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