Trade unions at Kochi port have demanded protection of the port’s interests as the Board of Trustees of the Port has approved the creation of Hindustan Ports Private Limited, the entity that will handle all of DP World’s operations in India.
The Union government’s approval for the DP World decision to change shareholding pattern to create the new entity was announced in March this year. Approval by the Board of Cochin Port Trust (CPT), a formality, was completed at the Board’s meeting here on Monday.
However, the formation of the new entity came under severe criticism by trade unions and it was approved ‘with strong dissent’ by labour representatives on the Board at its meeting here, trade union sources said.
The trade union representatives said the creation of the new entity did not mean that the port’s interests could be sacrificed.
When a supplementary agreement is signed, there must be a clause or clauses to ensure that the Port Trust received just returns on public investments running into thousands of crores of rupees for the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal project, trade unions have said.
The unions say that the Union government should have consulted individual port trusts before taking a decision on allowing the formation of a new entity by DP World. The Cochin Port Trust continues to spend substantial sum on maintenance activities for the DP World-operated facility here. This is in addition to the capital investments made by the Union government.
It had been claimed that the creation of the new entity would help draw foreign direct investment and private sector participation in the ports sector.
The trade unions had expressed ‘shock’ that the Union government decided to approve DP World’s proposal. A statement issued by the Cochin Port Joint Trade Union Forum had said in March this year that it was shocking that the government gave its nod for the ‘long-standing, unjust and unethical demand’ of the terminal operator.
