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The Union Ministry of Shipping has put in place a plan for enhancing the efficiency of eight major ports in the country.
The plan is over and above the initiatives announced under the Sagarmala project. The main thrust of the plan is faster mechanisation of port operations and quick turnaround time for ships.
A senior Shipping Ministry official told BusinessLine that the Ministry along with port authorities are planning to spend about ₹1,000 crore in the first phase for bringing in new conveyors, cranes and other equipment for a faster evacuation of cargo. Studies show container handling at Nhava Sheva port has increased and by the end of the current fiscal, it would be able to handle additional 2.5 lakh TEU, the official said.
TEU is a standard measure for measuring a port’s containerised cargo handling capacity.
Ports such as Kolkata, Goa, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru port), Mumbai, Kandla, Chennai and Paradip would be benefited from the plan.
The official said that due to the slower evacuation of commodities such as imported coal, government controlled ports are losing business to private ports. In the last four years, coal handling by government ports has dropped from 81 per cent to 47 per cent. This slide in coal handling volumes can be checked by faster conveyor systems and reduction of manual intervention.
In government ports, about 8,000 to 10,000 tonnes of coal can be lifted from a cargo vessel per day but in private ports the number is 25,000 tonnes. In such mechanised ports, the turnaround time of coal carrying vessels is reduced from eight days to three days, the official said. Another senior official said that in ports such as Paradip, there is an arrangement with the local labour union which forces the port management every day to load two coal wagons manually. Such kind of labour arrangements are eating into port efficiency therefore talks are underway with the unions for using labour for other work.
Not only is the Ministry stressing on mechanisation but it also closely looking at man management in ports. Senior executives from the private sector are being recruited for a specified period. They are being given compensation at par with private port operators.
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