The Cochin Port Trust (CPT) will introduce an automated bagging system of cargoes from the fourth week of this month. CPT chairman Paul Antony said on Sunday that 2400 tonne of cargo could be bagged on a daily basis through the new arrangement.
This is in view of the severe shortage of workers experienced in certain areas of cargo-handling at the port. This would speed up evacuation of bulk cargo such as fertilisers from the port through the railway network, he said.
A high-level meeting held at the port decided that the Kerala Heaload Workers Welfare Board [(KHWWB) should review the present pool system of headload workers and rearrange all the existing members of the scheme in the port area as per the requirement of the stakeholders.
As a measure of curbing notional wages (nokku kooli), the CPT officials would countersign the indent placed by the port users on the KHWWB so that port users would not be under pressure to indent for more than the required number of labourers.
The KHWWB will make all efforts to supply labourers strictly as per the indent. It will proceed action against those workers who were continuously absent after giving the statutory notice.
The high-level meeting was attended by the divisional railway manager, state labour commissioner, additional secretary (transport), commissioner of police, Kochi, RDO, Fort Kochi, senior officers of the concerned departments and various stakeholders of the port.
The railways spelt out various new plans to increase the rail movement connecting the port.
The port users highlighted that a major pre-condition for diverting the port cargo through the railways would be to ensure appropriate labour practices and competitive rates for loading and unloading of cargo in the port area.
