A massive ship that can carry up to 4,000 cars will call at the Kochi port on Tuesday to unload 606 Tata cars and six lorries.
The vessel, Dresden, which was to deliver 750 cars here on October 22, had skipped Kochi over a week ago following certain demands raised by local workers. It had delivered 522 cars here during two other stopovers earlier in October while commuting between Chennai and Gujarat, the two prominent car manufacturing hubs in the country.
Kochi port traffic manager Jimmy George said labour issues such as who would drive the cars out of the vessel had almost been settled following an agreement between workers (attached to the Kerala Head Load Workers Welfare Board) and stakeholders involved in transporting cars.
“Under the agreement, stakeholders will deploy around two dozen drivers to unload the cars. Workers attached to the board cannot be given the task which needs skill and training in sensitive handling of cars. Moreover, they take turns on the job. At the same time, they could be deputed for tasks that do not require much skill when the vessel arrives,” port sources said.
Dresden is a foreign ship converted for use in India. It was originally slated to call at Kochi six times a month. The Chennai-Gujarat journey takes up to six days, while the distance between Chennai and Kochi is covered in two-and-a-half days.
