Rise in average turnaround time at ports a cause for concern: Survey

The average turnaround time of major Indian ports has risen to 4.38 days in 2009-10 compared with 3.87 days in the previous year, undermining the competitiveness of Indian ports and is a cause of concern, the Economic Survey 2010-11 has said.

?The average turnaround time in major Indian ports was 4.38 days in 2009-10 and was relatively higher in some ports like Paradip, Kolkata, Vizag and Kandla? it said, while noting that the turnaround time of Singapore is less than a day.

?...The cause of further worry is the rise in average turnaround time and the average pre-berthing time, and the fall in average output per ship-berth-day in 2009-10,? it added.

Besides, the average pre-berthing waiting time has also increased in 2009-10 to 11.67 hours from 9.55 hours last year, the Survey said.

The pre-Budget Survey noted that the average output per ship berth day has gone down to 10,168 tonnes in 2009-10 compared with 10,473 tonnes in the previous year.

As one of the remedial measures, the Economic Survey has called for following a holistic approach for improving the infrastructure and services at ports through modernisation of the systems using latest technology.

'The facilities at existing ports with regard to cargo handling, stevedoring, pilotage services, bunker services and warehousing facilities need to be upgraded,' the Survey said, while calling for paying special attention on strengthening the facilities for handling crude oil.

India has 13 major ports that carry about 67 per cent of the total traffic and 200 non-major ports, of which 66 handle traffic.

It also called for increasing the drafts available at the Indian ports and providing different levels of tariff for different types of vessels or for different cargoes, to attract mother ships to berth at the Indian ports.

'The many port charges in India need to be reduced as they are higher than in many other countries due to inefficiency of ports and inclusion of unrelated costs like pension and other contribution to labour in port services,' the Survey said.

About the Indian shipping sector, the Survey said due to tonnage tax regime introduced by the Government in 2004-05 has boosted the growth of Indian fleet and tonnage.

'The Indian fleet presently stands at 10.16 million gross tonnage and 1,040 ships as on January 1, 2011,' it said.

It, however, noted with concern that the average age of Indian fleet has increased to 18.3 years in 2009 from 15 years in 1999 and emphasised ?there is an urgent need to increase the shipping fleet for a country of India?s size?.

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