Absence of future plan leaves ChPT in chaos

CHENNAI: While the Chennai Port has registered a phenomenal growth in containerised cargo handling over the years, lack of future planning by the Chennai Port Trust for timely cargo evacuation via its gates is hampering its growth.Though the port had four main gates (Gate Zero, Two, Two (A) and Ten) for round-the-clock container evacuation in 2001, the scenario has changed dramatically over the last 10 years and now it has only one gate (Gate Zero) for the full-fledged movement of containers. While the number of gates has been reduced from four to one, the port added one more private container terminal two years ago and the revenue from container handling is booming every year.“Though the port has been heralded as the eastern gateway port of the country for providing the shortest sea-connectivity for Chinese and Malaysian ports, the lack of gates for moving containers has made it a port without gates,” lamented R Santhanam, general secretary of the Port and Dock Labour Union, an affiliate of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).“We feel that the port management has failed to envisage its future plans like opening more gates for transporting containerised cargoes and it has been directly affecting the port’s future,” Santhanam said.While the volume of containers has now increased five times (15 lakh) from the 2001 figure of just three lakh boxes, the Chennai Port, instead of opening more gates and facilities for container movements, has only one gate for the round-the-clock movement now.Though the other three gates are in existence, cargo movements through them are restricted and happend only for five hours at night. Besides Gate Zero, Gate Two (A) has been used for container movement in night hours.While the port’s three gates (Gate Zero, Two and Two-A) are located in Royapuram and Kasimedu areas, Gate -Ten is located in front the War Memorial.Consistent failure to formulate proper strategies for evacuating containerised cargo over the years has finally resulted in utter congestion. Though the Port Trust officials maintained that ‘there was no congestion and all media reports are figment of imagination’ and the inventory of containers is within its ‘capacity,’ many container trailer drivers said that they were waiting in a queue for more than three days to enter the port. Santhanam also appealed to the Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan to take steps to solve the congestion issue, which could eat into the port’s revenue in the long run.