Previous

Page - 4

3. Hinterland Connectivity: As most ports in India do not have proper road and rail heads connectivity to the hinterland, which leads to the slower movement of cargo and hence the congestion at port and yards. This appalling connectivity had lead to poor evacuation of both import and export containers from the ports. It ultimately leads to increase in turnaround time and pre berthing time for the vessel.
Further it leads to increased loading and unloading time. The problem of congestion is compounded because of the existing railway infrastructure. The rakes carrying the containers, which are operated by CONCOR, run on the exiting passenger tracks. Given that passenger trains are given preference how can cargo train reap benefit, as the result cargo operation suffers due to inordinate delays? The possible solution can be the usage of road. At present there are 6 rail sidings serving JNPT & NSICT are inside the port area when there are in actual 11 tracks that bring the rakes to gateway ports. This converging of tracks from 11 to 6 delays the container rake by 14-20 hours.

Even the hinterland connectivity through feeder services is not significant. In some countries such as China, inland waterway and coastal transport produces nearly as many ton-km of output as rail, road and air cargo transport combined. Nearly seventy per cent of the movement is on the Yangtze River primarily with commodities like coal, crude oil, iron ore, rolled steel and building materials both in Bulk and containerised form. While in India the hinterland connectivity via coastal shipping is yet in infancy stage. The Cabotage law to protect the coastal shipping has in actual being detrimental owing to the lack of competitiveness in the sector. The companies like Bengal Tiger Lines (BTL) are the only leading feeder services provider on the east coast. While on the west coast players like SCI, GESCO are some of the major players.

4. Cost Structure: One of the key issues that are less talked about is the high cost structure of container ship calling on the Indian ports. According to survey conducted by Economic Times group it is only at JNPT the handling cost per container is cheaper otherwise, it is costlier at any other port of call in India.

Next

* Contributed by -
Amit Gupta,
Did Dual MBA from IMI, Belgium and IIPM, New Delhi (Specialisation in Marketing & Finance) in February 2005,
Currently working in i-Maritime Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai.