A team from the ministry of shipping is going to Port Blair next month to calm workers restive at the new structure of the port.
The ministry is going to give an option to the agitating workers to continue as employees of the new Port Blair Port Trust (PBPT) or opt to be posted elsewhere in a public sector unit. “No one is going to lose their job and if they want to work in a government job, then that arrangement can also be made by posting them elsewhere,” said a senior ministry official.
The PBPT, now declared the country’s 13th major port, has been facing protests from workers, who are unwilling to work in a Trust structure and fear the perks of a government job will be taken away. The port trust was formed by merging the Union Territory administration-controlled Port Management Board with the Andaman Harbour Work, which is under the ministry’s administrative control.
The port is of strategic importance and closer to two major international shipping lines, Saudi Arabia-Singapore and US-Singapore. Port Blair will have territorial jurisdiction over 23 other ports, including the East Island Port, Diglipur Port (Port Cornwalis), Mayabunder Port, Elphinston Harbour Rangat Port, Havelock Port and Neil Island Port.
The other major ports are Kolkata (including the dock complex at Haldia), Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Tuticorin, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Navi Mumbai (Jawaharlal Nehru), Mumbai, Kandla and Ennore. At present, the combined capacity of the existing 12 major ports is about 580 million tonnes per annum, while the total capacity of minor ports is around 250 million tonnes per annum.