'Drawing hinterland traffic is crucial'

Ports in Gujarat must evolve a marketing strategy to increase traffic, G Raghuram, a faculty of the Indian Institute of Management who has been closely associated with Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), said.

"The authorities need to see if traffic from the hinterland is being adequately attracted to ports. They should also consider setting up offices in the hinterland for effective marketing," he said at a discussion on 'Attracting customers to Gujarat ports' in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

"The Gujarat Maritime Board or even the Kandla port cannot expect traffic to increase substantially if they just attempt to market the port from Gujarat. There is a need to set up marketing offices in areas which they consider hinterland, especially the northern states," Raghuram said.

"None of the ports in Gujarat even have a database on the distribution of traffic at the ports. While there is data on the amount of traffic handled, it is also important to know how much traffic is from within ten kilometers of the port and how much from further away places," he pointed out.

Gujarat Maritime Board officials said on Tuesday that while a further break up was not available, 94 per cent of all traffic handled by ports under its control is from Gujarat, and just six per cent is from outside.

Incidentally, GMB, which until now considered its hinterland to be inland areas of Gujarat, along with those of western Madhya Pradesh and western Uttar Pradesh, has been asked to increase its hinterland to all northern states that are surrounded by land.

"There is a need to extend the hinterland beyond western UP and western MP. Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh too must be considered as the hinterland," said Drumil Patel, manager, marketing for GMB.

He added that the distance from the port is not the sole criterion for choosing a particular port. "Gujarat has the huge advantage as against other ports in the country as it is closest to Europe," Patel said.

Raghuram also dwelt on the issue of specific supply chains for each of the key customers that use Gujarat ports.

"The question is whether we can create key supply chains with economic value addition for Gujarat; that will go a long way in enhancing traffic," Raghuram said.

He added that the wider issue that the authorities need to address is weather the industrial location, and trade and commerce strategy effectively linked with the port development strategy of the state government.