Anchorage port cries for attention

Even as the exports of rice and maize to foreign counties are going up steadily from the Kakinada anchorage port, the problems pertaining to basic infrastructure and facilities continue to haunt the exporters here.

Though there is no dearth of funds for commencing the works, the inordinate delay is being attributed to administrative reasons.

With the Central government lifting the ban on export of non-basmathi rice in September 2011, the anchorage port that was on the verge of closure had resumed its activities. Along with non-basmathi rice varieties, there has been a significant rise in maize exports.

On the very first year of the lifting of the ban, the port registered a total export of commodities weighting 31.48 lakh metric tonnes worth Rs. 5,890 crore.

At the end of the fiscal 2012-13, the total exports were 37.35 lakh metric tonnes worth Rs. 4,737 crore.

The exports took a dip in the fiscal 2013-14, in which 31.09 lakh metric tonnes of goods were shipped to different destinations, with value estimated at Rs. 3,722 crore. The Samaikyandhra movement seems to have affected the trade in the last financial year.

“At a time when competition from the private port is getting tougher, the officials are not focussing on addressing even the basic facilities. The roads connecting to the port are in a bad shape and the canals through which the commodities are being sent to ships through steel barges require immediate dredging,” says Burra Anu Babu, chairman of the Kakinada Port Steel Barge Owners Welfare Association.

“Absence of basic facilities is causing a delay in loading, due to which the traders are forced to pay demurrage,” he says. It is learnt that the Union Ministry of Commerce has allocated Rs. 10 crore and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority has allocated another Rs. 13 crore for undertaking development works in the anchorage port.

“The officials here need to take permission from the Hyderabad office for every small work, due to which there is an inordinate delay in the development works. Setting up the Maritime Board here will help addressing the issues permanently,” says Dantu Surya Rao, chairman of the Cocanada Chamber of Commerce.