One must keep one’s nose covered with a handkerchief while entering the premises of the Kakinada anchorage port. The intolerable stink emanating from the surroundings indicate how badly the government-run port is maintained.
The road leading to the port has attained notoriety as one of the worst roads for any vehicle, but hundreds of trucks carrying loads of rice and maize ply on the dirty pot-holed track round-the-clock. The commercial canal, through which goods are carted on barges to ships anchored in the sea, hardly witnessed any dredging in the recent past.
Absence of jetties is another major hurdle that hits export activity. Meanwhile, stakeholders of the anchorage port accuse the government of giving step-motherly treatment to the port in a bid to highlight the deepwater port being maintained by some private group.
The anchorage port is known for exporting rice and maize to African countries. Over 10,000 labourers depend on the port for their livelihood. When the port was on the verge of closure, the Union government lifted the ban on export of non-basmati rice in September 2011. The decision gave a new lease of life to the port.
Even as the port hardly witnessed any development after the departure of the British, traders used the opportunity and exported non-basmati rice to African countries. Subsequently, there was demand for maize from the Middle East, and the local traders rose to the occasion. Though the cash registers started ringing, the government did not allocate funds for the development of the port.
Moreover, paucity of funds is forcing the port authorities to postpone dredging activity in the commercial canal, not to mention repair of external and internal roads and jetties.
HIT BY HURDLES
1. Area: 1,960 acres
2. Length of wharf: 922 metres
3. Current cargo handling capacity: 34,000 tonnes a day
4. Number of jetties: 35 (only 16 are functional)
5. Number of steel barges: 88
Cargo handled :
*31.48 lakh metric tonnes worth Rs. 5,890 crore in 2011-12
*37.35 lakh metric tonnes worth Rs. 4,737 crore in 2012-13
*31.09 lakh metric tonnes worth Rs. 3,722 crore in 2013-14
GROWTH IN LIMBO
*Officials not accessible to stakeholders
*Dire need for better infrastructure
*Absence of facilities causes delay in loading, forcing traders to pay demurrage charges
