Transport stir looms as JNPT lobs toll tax ball in NHAI court

Another meeting on the issue scheduled today to find a way out

Ports in Mumbai such as Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Nhava Sheva, seem headed for an indefinite strike starting October 5 with the stand-off between the transporters and port authorities intensifying.

While the transporters are demanding the removal of toll tax on National Highway 4B, the port authorities say it is not in their jurisdiction and that the container operators have to negotiate with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which holds 50 per cent equity in the Mumbai-JNPT Road Corporation.

The port, which services almost all of northern and western India, handles around 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) every year. Nearly 6,000 containers move in and out of the port daily.

However, since NH 4B was inaugurated in July this year, the container operators have been on a warpath over toll payment for using the highway which connects the port and the National Highway 4.

R T Revankar, chief manager (operations), JN Port, said the port has appealed to the transporters to postpone the strike as the power to remove the toll tax is not vested in the port authorities.

"Toll tax does not come under the jurisdiction of the port. However, we have assured the truck operators that we will take up the matter with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)," Revankar said.

Nhava Sheva Container Operators Welfare Association (NSCOWA) executives said the transporters want complete abolition of the toll tax levied by the special purpose vehicle (SPV) created by JN Port, City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) and NHAI.

"Earlier, the port has asked the transporters to postpone the strike for two months. But we will not compromise on any reduction of toll tax amount. We do not want any sops, we want no toll. We have firmed up plans to go ahead with strike if they are not scrapping this road cess," they said.

Last month too, the container operators had threatened a strike but had withdrawn it upon assurances from the port authorities to examine the issue. The JNPT authorities had then come up with a concessional pass for regular users of the highway. But that was not acceptable to the container operators who are demanding a total removal of the toll tax.

Said Sanjay Potdar, secretary of the Nhava Sheva Container Operators Welfare Association, "We will not settle on anything less than the total abolition of this toll." Last Saturday, JNPT chairman Ravi Budhiraja had called a meeting of the container operators along with NHAI officials. However, the meeting was unproductive as both sides stuck to their stand.

Budhiraja has called another meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue.

According to industry sources, the strike would affect outward movement of cargo and movement between container freight stations at JN Port. This would also lead to piling of containers in the port yard, they said.

Though officials claim that there would not be any threat to the movement inside the yard, the transporters cautioned that they would halt cargo movement outside the yard too.