• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Santanu Sanyal

Inadequate port capacity and navigational aids, bunching of vessels, limited cargo handling facilities, high down time of equipment, low labour productivity, shortage of storage space, all contribute to the low efficiency of the Indian ports.

A study on the dwell time of cargo in Indian ports reveals that for containers the average at major container terminals is 1.88 days for imports and 3.78 days for exports.

More importantly, the port authorities are responsible for only 3.5-5.5 hours for import containers and 3.3-5.3 hours for export boxes, while the rest of the wait is on account of other stakeholders such as shipping agents, Customs, clearing agents, transporters and others responsible for various pre- and post-shipment activities such as documentation, arranging for funds for port charges and organising transport. The average dwell time for dry bulk and break bulk cargoes is: Imports — dry bulk 38.23 days and break bulk 15.49 days; and exports — dry bulk 27.14 days and break bulk 17.2 days. The dwell time of liquid bulk is not important because of its fully mechanical handling.

Inter-Ministerial Study

The study was undertaken by an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), under the chairmanship of the Shipping Secretary, with Secretaries in the Departments of Revenue, Commerce, Economic Affairs, and representatives of the Planning Commission and the Railway Board as members.

The Group, which met twice in May, and once in June, October and November last year and this January, had discussions with representatives of major ports and users to know the issues involved and to identify the measures required to reduce the dwell time.

The different aspects of the dwell time at various stages involving different agencies were also reviewed.

Dwell time is the duration for which an `entity' stays in the port for service; in port parlance, the `entities' are vessels and cargo (including containers). The vessel-related dwell time is the time between a vessel reporting at anchorage and its casting-off from the berth, which is also the turnaround time of the vessel.

The cargo/container related dwell time is the time a consignment remains in a terminal's in-transit storage awaiting shipment (for exports) or evacuation by rail/road (for imports). Dwell time thus reflects the efficiency of the port. Higher the dwell time, lower is the efficiency.

A comparisons with two major international ports — Rotterdam and Singapore — is interesting.

Comparisons

At Rotterdam, the dwell time for containers as well as break bulk cargoes, for both imports and exports, is higher than those in major ports in India and yet it is not a matter of concern because the port, according to the study, "is a component of the industrial complex similar to the Special Economic Zone in India."

However, Singapore presents a different picture. At Singapore, there is no dry bulk; only break bulk and containers and the dwell time of break bulk for both imports and exports is 0.85 day and for containers (both imports and exports) 0.6 days.

The foreign ports score on several factors such as the high degree of mechanisation in cargo handling as well as information exchange with the participation of highly-skilled workforce, availability of sufficient space for storage and allied activities and proper facilities for quick evacuation of cargoes.

The study identifies the obstacles to achieving the international norms. Vast differences have been observed in the availability of infrastructure, connectivity and electronic information exchange. Thus, the aggregation/evacuation of cargo in international ports is very quick due to several reasons such as seamless connectivity with various modes of transport, excellent rail/road/inland waterways network, higher carrying capacity of wagons and road carriers and conveyor system for handling bulk cargoes.

Electronic Tracking

The port community, supported by the PORTNET, allows ordering of berths and pilot services, documentation, enquiry, tracking and billing. The entire berth system, ship planning, yard planning system, resource allocation system and flow through gate is done electronically. This, the study observes, can be put into operation in Indian ports only after a comprehensive introduction of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). The study thus identified a number of factors responsible for the high dwell time contributing to low efficiency of the Indian ports.

These include infrastructure constraints such as inadequate port capacity and navigational aids, bunching of vessels due to restriction in the channel as well as non-availability of berths, poor road network within the port, limited cargo handling facilities, high down time of equipment, low labour productivity and shortage of storage space.

This apart, there are regulatory restrictions on operation time, low IT application including partial implementation of EDI, mainly due to prevalence of too many manual documents, archaic systems and procedures and limited time for payment and documentation.

The factors attributable to other stakeholders include non-aggregation of cargo on time, slow evacuation of cargoes from the areas leased /licensed to users, delay in preparation of documents, mismatch at transfer points, procedural formalities of regulatory authorities, limited working hours of Customs and other government agencies.

Also to blame are the lack of inspection of facilities for edible oil, plants and drugs at the port, restrictions imposed by local bodies on movement of containers by road, delay in mobilisation of equipment and trucks by stevedores, and shortage of railway wagons, rakes and heavy duty trucks.

More Stories on : Shipping | Performance | On the move

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Inflation fighting — RBI's `Shock and Awe' treatment

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line