JNPT tops the table in efficiency

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust has emerged as the most efficient major port in India during April-November 2003 by figuring among the top five ports based on key parameters like traffic handled, percentage growth in traffic and turnaround time.

The port had the lowest turnaround time of 1.72 days but lagged in average pre-berthing time, recording 9.6 hours as against the lowest of 0.05 hours registered by the Kolkata port during the same period.

While the turnaround time is the time taken for a vessel to unload and leave the berth, average pre-berthing time is the time a ship has to wait before it can dock.

Even though JNPT, at 20.2 million tonnes, lagged in terms of quantum of traffic registered, it had a healthy growth of 14.94 per cent which is just below the Haldia and Ennore ports.

Traffic jumped 23 per cent in Ennore, but on a low base of 5.02 million tonnes registered in April - November 2002.

The Kolkata port's lowest pre-berthing time of 0.05 hours could be attributed to a meagre traffic of 4.14 million tonnes during April-November 2003, the lowest among all the ports, a port official said.

The reason for such poor flow of traffic is a shallow draught of 7 metres available at the port. Kolkata, at Sandheads, has a highest draught of 50 meters which makes it possible to handle vessels with a capacity of around 4 lakh tonnes, which is the highest in the country.

Sandheads in Kolkata is the outer limit where a vessel can be received. However, the draught is available off the shore only, which means there are no breakwaters to maintain calm sea conditions and hence the port is able to utilise the jetty for only seven months in a year.

Moreover, the jetty is 128 km away from the port and 50 km away from the mainland which could deter the volumes from growing, a port official said.

New Mangalore Port's performance has also been good considering that it figures amongst the top five in three of the four parameters.

It, however, trails all the others in terms of absolute traffic handled. The port's traffic growth has received a major boost due to the expansion of the New Mangalore Refinery in 2002 which led to an increase in the flow of Petroleum Lubricant and Oil cargo at the port.

Visakhapatnam and Kandla have scored on the account of quantum of cargo handled by them. Visakhapatnam's strong cargo mix ranging from POL, iron ore, fertiliser to container enabled it to register large volumes.

Kandla, on other hand, traditionally receives heavy traffic because POL cargo of most of the refineries in Gujarat is routed through the port. The POL traffic for the April-November 2003 period at 14.9 million tonnes was half the total cargo of 26.8 million tonnes handled in the same period.