• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• 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
• Events 2007

Group Sites

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

Our Bureau

Kochi, Feb 19 The 12-hour hartal called by the opposition parties in the State partially affected the operations of the Cochin Port Trust on Tuesday.

The stoppage of trailer operations has affected the movement of containers carrying cargoes to and from the port premises to various destinations. However, the hartal didn’t affect the container terminal operations, as there is enough cargo inside the terminal for exports. Likewise the operations in the Mattanchery Wharf, where bulk cargo vessels are anchored, has also not been hampered.

Various port establishments had worked with skeleton staff as there is no vehicular movement in the city.

Meanwhile, the shipping fraternity and various trade bodies called upon the political parties and organisations to exempt the port operations from the purview of hartals or strikes considering the importance of exim trade from Kerala.

They pointed out that that uninterrupted functioning of the port is essential for the export/import trade and the spate of hartals, which shuts down all movement outside the Wharf area, has been repeatedly sending out wrong signals.

Smooth operations of the port are directly linked to the health of traditional industries such as coir, cashew, tea, spices and seafood for which the export trade is a critical lifeline.

The direct fallout of frequent work disruptions caused by hartals has been the diversion of a significant volume of cargo to other ports and these lost volumes can only be induced back to Kochi by sending out positive signals, they added.

Various trade bodies pointed out that the port’s contribution to the State exchequer is significant and due to the disruption of port services the exporters suffer a lot in meeting the commitments of overseas buyers.

More Stories on : Shipping | Politics

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

Stories in this Section
Lufthansa adds more flights from India

Copyright © 2008, 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