Ministry may extend freight corridor to ports to save time

Concerned about the greater dwelling time of vessels (the time they dock in a port) at major Indian ports, the shipping ministry is mulling the possibility of extending the reach of the dedicated rail freight corridor to these ports.

At the moment, the freight corridors are proposed to be linked to the four metro cities (linking the ports of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai). The ministry proposes to link the freight corridor to all 12 major ports, including Vizag, Cochin and Kandla, among others.

The ministry feels such a linkage will bring down the dwelling time of cargo vessels, currently around 30 days, which results in loss of revenue for stakeholders as well as choking of ports.

Extending the reach of the freight corridor will enable transporters to operate their fleet round-the-clock, which will lead to faster movement of cargo to and from ports, thus helping in reducing the dwelling time.

This suggestion is part of a series of recommendations made by an inter-ministerial group formed by the Prime Minister's Committee on Infrastructure in early 2006 under the chairmanship of the secretary (shipping).

The inter-ministerial group was formed to look for measures that can help reduce the dwelling time of vessels. Based on these recommendations, the shipping ministry has prepared a draft report, which will soon be sent to the Cabinet.

The shipping ministry has also suggested that as Indian ports have higher terminal occupancy (more than 65 per cent), mainly those with dedicated facilities to handle specific commodities, more dedicated terminals, especially for handling containers need to be developed.

It has also recommended that modern equipment is needed in ports as most of them have become outdated and have poor levels of productivity, which leads to delay in movement of cargo.

Sources said ports were not able to replace their equipment because according to the ministry's guidelines, equipment should be used for at least 20 years.