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The stoppage of the facilities of three harbour mobile cranes at the New Mangalore port following the expiry of the contract between the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) and contractors have affected the shipment plans of many users.
In 2006, the NMPT had entered into a five-year licence agreement with three contractors for providing harbour mobile crane facilities at the port.
The agreement came to an end on September 3.
Mr M. Shekhar Pujari, President of the Association of New Mangalore Port Stevedores, told Business Line that the contractors have withdrawn their services for handling of import and export cargo from the ships from September 4.
He said the neither the port nor the contractors gave sufficient notice period to the export-import trade and port users to plan their shipments.
No alternative arrangement has been made so far at the port, he said.
Diversion
Mr Praveen Kumar Bangera, President of Mangalore Steamer Agents' Association, said that some of the gearless vessels have already been diverted from Mangalore. (Gearless vessels are ships without cranes or conveyors. These ships depend on shore-based equipment at their ports of call for loading and discharging.)
Stating that the port should have given prior notice to the users on this, he said this would have helped them in not accepting vessel bookings at Mangalore.
Stressing the need for a speedy solution to the issue, Mr Mohammed Ameen, Vice-President of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), said that many users of KCCI will be affected by this.
Many users are receiving the gearless vessels at the port, as the port had the facility to handle them in the form of mobile harbour cranes. It will be difficult to convince the trade once the service is stopped, he said.
Mr P. Tamilvanan, Chairman of NMPT, told Business Line that the five-year licence term of the crane came to an end on September 3.
With the approval of the board, NMPT asked the contractors to continue for six months with the same terms and conditions. But the contractors refused this. The port is now going for a new tender on public-private partnership model, he said.
To a query, he said that there will not be any problem in handling geared vessels at the port. Gearless vessels may not come for some time, he added. (Geared vessels will have cranes or conveyors that allows them to load or discharge cargo in ports without shore-based equipment.)
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