Business
Chennai Port: P&O steps in to ease congestion
By Our Staff Reporter
CHENNAI, DEC. 11. The congestion in the Chennai Port Trust will ease in a week's time, says Mr. Jimmy Sarbh, Chairman and Managing Director of Chennai Container Terminal Limited (CCTL). In a meeting with the shipping traders organised by Federation of Indian Export Organisation here today, Mr. Jimmy Sarbh told shipping traders that steps were taken to ease out the congestion in the port. The CCTL had already placed orders for new equipment and it is also shipping reach stackers from the Nava Sheva Port.
Mr. Jimmy Sarbh requested shipping traders to maintain patience for few more days as P&O Ports of Australia, was awarded the privatisation contract just ten days ago. The company took over the terminal with bad equipment and other problems. It would require sometime before rectifying these problems. Meanwhile, to decongest the container terminal, CCTL had entered into an agreement with the Container Corporation of India's (Concor) container freight station at Thondiarpet in Chennai, to move a few containers to its terminal. However, the charges levied by Concor were yet to be worked out.
Shipping traders were however not convinced with the assurance made by the CCTL Chief. According to them the CCTL did not take traders into confidence in all the procedural process. It said shipping traders were not informed about the shifting of containers to Concor CFS for the interim period and it was also forced to pay the storage charges to Concor. It wanted the CCTL to waive the storage charges for the containers.
Similarly, the congestion charges have progressively been raised from $75 per TEU (Twenty Equivalent Units) to $200. The new charge will become operational from December 15, it is learnt.
The turnaround time of a vessel calling on the Chennai port has shot up to an unacceptable 21 days, from three days a few months ago. The international standard for a ship turnaround is just a day, it is argued.
Traders view the congestion in the port was simply due to inefficiency that has crept into the container operations at the Chennai port. It has pushed up their operational cost.
However, the main issue, is that many of the vessels are anchored at the Chennai port for an inordinately longer period than warranted, causing huge loss to business.
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