Severe shortage of wagons has hit hard evacuation of coal and other cargo at the Visakhapatnam Port. As a result, there is a huge stockpile.
Sources said that the Railways was able to supply only nine rakes as against the requirement of 16 per day, resulting in ships waiting at anchorage for want of space.
BOT operators have made large investments in increasing the discharge rate to an extent of 75,000 tonnes per day and the port is interested in increasing the draught for bringing bigger vessels, and importers are bringing Cape size and Panamax vessels for achieving economy of scale.
“All these estimates are being defeated due to lack of sufficient wagons to evacuate cargo, forcing vessels to wait, resulting in payment of demurrages that is causing additional burden to the importers,” Vizagapatam Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice-president A.V. Monish Row said on Wednesday.
The Railways should immediately take steps to ensure supply of required number of rakes to meet despatch of cargo from the port so that the efficiency levels were maintained and the industry did not suffer.
Moreover, some more berths are getting ready under the PPP mode, which will lead to more stress on the railway system, and availability of rakes will further become deficient.
Mr. Row asked the authorities concerned to initiate steps to ensure that sufficient rakes were supplied and cautioned that failure to meet the requirement would cause loss of business and lead to diversion of cargo from the port.
