Vasan orders action to reduce congestion at Chennai Port

The Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan on Tuesday directed the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) officials to take immediate steps to reduce congestion at the harbour that has resulted in containers stretching up to several kilometres from the main gate for the last few days. Chairing the review meeting that was attended by the representatives of Shipping Department, the Union Government, Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Heads of Department's of ChPT and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), he asked the ChPT officials to solve the problem within a reasonable time after consulting all the stakeholders so that no hardship was caused to the public and trade. Talking to The Hindu , ChPT Chairman Atulya Misra, said to clear the congestion they were asked to co-ordinate with the police and Customs officials to open one more bay at zero gate, open up gate 2A on 24x7 basis and gate 10 by two more hours at night; Tiruvottiyur Parking yard should be made operational on a war-footing by giving preference to container terminal operators to operate or to a third party; trade should send vehicles to the harbour with valid documents. “At present, we have two bays (two for entry and two for exit of containers). The Minister has asked us to modernise zero gate and open one more bay within three to four months' time and widen the roads that lead to zero gate. NHAI officials have to expedite the work at zero gate at the earliest. We will lay six to eight lanes from the zero gate to avoid stranding of vehicles either at the entrance or inside the premises. This would be done in five to six months' time,” he said. Regarding opening of gates 2A and 10 for longer duration, Mr. Misra said efforts would be made to open it within the next few days with the assistance of city police and customs officials. Currently, gate 10 was opened for vehicular movement from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. It was decided to operate from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Besides, ChPT would request the State Government to regulate traffic in and around War Memorial instead of shutting it to facilitate Chennai Metro Rail work. The news about the review meeting took port users, logistic providers, traders, container terminal operators and shipping agents by surprise. “We would have explained the situation properly and provided valuable inputs,” said a port user. Hitesh Kumar S. Makwana, private secretary to Mr. Vasan told The Hindu that the meeting was held to take corrective action. During the two-hour meeting, Mr. Vasan reviewed the Ennore Manali Road Improvement Project, elevated port link road to Maduravoyal, mega container terminal and other projects. Admitting that congestion had chocked the ChPT's operations, Atulya Misra said it was due to increase in number of containers from 80,000 to 1.60 lakh in five years, growing volume, reduction in number of gates and inadequate infrastructure among other things. “Currently, we have 12,000 boxes which are lying for a week and about eight boxes that have been there for a month. We are talking to traders to handle import and export containers in a balanced manner so that dwelling time can be brought down to normal level. With all these measures in place, we hope to bring back normalcy by the month end,” he said