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Perspective plan

Vinod Mathew

THE Gujarat Maritime Board vice-chairman, Mr P. N. Roy Choudhury told Business Line that the 10 greenfield ports being put up in the state would try and cater to the cargo demand on berthing space that was swelling by the day in the ports on the western coast.

The State government has put in place a perspective plan that will cater to the needs for the next 50 years, including road and rail connectivity with the container terminals very much in focus, while the decision on what kind of investment _ both in siz e and nature _ would be left to the private sector.

``The Kandla Port Trust (KPT) reportedly works at 120 per cent of its rated capacity. For a long time now, we have been proceeding under the assumption that such a thing was good, mainly as there were no alternative systems in place.

What the upcoming ports in Gujarat are attempting to do is to blow apart this `over-capacity utilisation' and instead set up ports which, at 70-80 per cent capacity utilisation, allows for slack in the system. The shippers would be the first to agree wit h this as they wind up paying hefty demurrage charges in these busy ports in India,'' Mr Choudhury pointed out.

It is no surprise that GMB, largely on the strength of cargo to and from the Reliance refinery in Jamnagar, is set to make a quantum jump in its traffic this fiscal. According to the port body's estimates, the cargo handled by GMB, that was at 48 million tonnes, is poised to touch 75 million tonnes, come March next.

With container handling facilities such as the two berths that are scheduled to get going in Mundra early next year and the rail connectivity to boot, it is anybody's guess as to how long heavyweights such as JNPT will maintain its superiority in this se ctor.