The restriction imposed by traffic controllers due to the ongoing metro rail work has impacted export of cars via Chennai port.
Korean automajor Hyundai, which is using Chennai as a major hub to cater to the export market, said its Indian subsidiary HMIL had set an export target of 20,000 cars for November and to date it had not even achieved a quarter of this number.
The traffic police are diverting the export consignments to the zero gate for entry into the port. The decision was taken as the general public is unable to use the road in front of the Chennai Central Railway station, which was used by the car carriers, and also considering the need for patients to reach the government hospital, safely.
“Keeping the public interest in view the police has had to take this decision, although they are aware that it causes grave inconvenience to exporters and of course this decision has not just affected HMIL but all exporters in general,” said Hyundai in a statement.
Ford spokesperson was not available for comment immediately.
However, industry sources said the restriction, which will be till March 31, 2015, will apply for car carriers, considering their size is “huge” compared with other trucks that carry containers and other bulk cargoes. Hyundai is the single largest user of the port when it comes to cars.
Hyundai said the route to zero gate had 17-18-km long queue, which translates to a wait of 3-5 days to get into the port. Had the other gates to the port been open, there could have been a more viable solution. Under the given circumstances, unless the authorities jointly find a feasible alternative solution, all exporters will have to follow this route, it said.
“We hope the government is able to find a feasible interim solution, but given the infrastructure bottlenecks, this seems difficult,” said the company.
The only solution out of this situation seems to be that all concerned stake holders jointly brainstorm and come up with a solution, said the company.
