New chief likely for Chennai port

The Centre is likely to appoint N Govindan, the chairman of the state-owned Tamil Nadu Minerals Ltd, as the new chief of the Chennai Port Trust.

Citing an internal memo, a senior official at the Chennai Port Trust said the appoinment would be confirmed only after the Lok Sabha elections.

Raman had taken temporary charge of the Chennai port after P Baskaradoss stepped down from the post to take charge as the chairman of Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd in mid-February.

Earlier, there were also talks of NK Raghupathy, chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust, taking charge of the Chennai Port Trust. However, port sources said Govindan was likely to become the next chariman of the port.

The fact that Govindan is a Tamil Nadu cadre officer places him at an advantage. Rahupathy is a West Bengal cadre officer.

Govindan refused to comment on his prospects of becoming the next chairman of the Chennai port.

Raman too refused to discuss the prospects of the candidates and said the ministry would, in due course of time, make an official announcement.

He, however, said the top priority of the new chairman should ideally be marketing.

"The port management should gear up on the marketing front. It should try to bring more cleaner cargo to the port like passenger cars and food grain." He also said the port authorities should be more flexible on tariffs to attract a larger customer base.

"The port authorties should travel extensively to commercial hubs like Bangalore and raise the status of the port to the level of Vizag port," he said.

Former chairman of the port, Baskaradoss, while agreeing with Raman, added that the port must regain its number two status.

"Till Ennore Port was established, Chennai Port enjoyed the number two status. The next chairman must consolidate the port's operations to bring back the total cargo handling to 42 million tonnes." The Chennai port handled 36.71 million tonnes of cargo in 2003-04. Bulk of the coal handled by the port was moved to Ennore, pushing the port to the number three position.

At the national level, the first position in terms of tonnage handling, is held by Vizag, followed by Kandla. Baskaradoss said, "During my tenure, the ministry had cleared two new tipplers to improve the iron ore handling from eight to ten million tonnes.

Baskaradoss further said the port must try to increase the arrival of containers by train instead of road. "Now, only 11 per cent of the containers arrive by train and the rest by road. In a successful port, like JNPT, almost 40 per cent of the containers arrive by train. Chennai port must move in that direction," he said. He said the 8,000 strong work-force was not a cause for worry.

"The workforce and the union have been very co-operative. As the tonnage handled in the port goes up, this size of workforce will be justified. The port management should try to increase the productivity in consultation with the union."

He said the Prime Minister's dream project for ports, Sagarmala, to a great extent takes care of the infrastructure concerns of the port.

Under this programme, four infrastructure projects for the port have been sanctioned.