The Hindu Business Line : Panel set up to study containerisation in ports

Terms of reference
Studying infrastructure facilities for containers in major ports, identifying bottlenecks, particularly the problem of congestion, exploring the areas of improvement in the entire logistics chain and making recommendations, among others.

Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata, Feb. 4

The Ministry of Shipping has constituted a high-powered committee, headed by Capt P.V.K. Mohan, Member of the National Shipping Board and also the Chairman and Managing Director of the Hyderabad-based Seeways Group, to study various aspects of containerisation in ports (except Kolkata and Haldia), both major and non-major.

The other member of the committee is Mr S. Hajara, Chairman and Managing Director, Shipping Corporation of India.

The chairperson of the concerned port too, will be included in the committee as and when it will visit a particular port. Since the committee will cover all the ports (except Kolkata/Haldia) on both east and west coasts, four additional members, two each for east and west coast ports, have also been nominated.

Thus, the members for the east coast ports are Capt L.K. Panda, Principal Officer, Mercantile Marine Department, Kolkata and Mr Ashwini Kumar, Director, Ministry of Shipping, and for the west coast ports Capt H. Khatri, Deputy Director General, Directorate General of Shipping and Ms Puniya Srivastava, Director, Ministry of Shipping.

The terms of reference of the committee include studying infrastructure facilities for containers in major ports, identifying bottlenecks, particularly the problem of congestion, exploring the areas of improvement in the entire logistics chain and making recommendations, both short-term and long-term, for meeting the challenges of the projected increase in container traffic in major ports.

The constitution of the present committee comes close on the heels of a similar committee constituted earlier, also under Capt Mohan, by the Ministry exclusively for Kolkata port (including Haldia). That committee submitted its report in November last suggesting both short-term and long-term measures to boost container traffic through Kolkata port.

The Union Shipping Minister, Mr T.R. Baalu, visited Kolkata in early December and discussed the report with the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who also appreciated the recommendations and promised all help.

Capt. Mohan told Business Line over phone from Hyderabad, that the present committee would try to firm up its views as early as possible.

“The report of the earlier committee on containerisation for Kolkata port was well received not only by the Shipping Ministry but also the cross-section of users, including trade, so much so that Mr Baalu felt the need for a similar committee for all other ports,” Capt Mohan said, pointing out that the non-major ports would play a key role in boosting the containerised traffic in coming years.

Emphasising the need for working out a strategy to prevent haphazard growth of container handling facilities in various ports, Capt Mohan also drew attention to other areas such as proper connectivity and documentation and Customs procedures, which, he felt, deserved due attention.

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