Wheat, fertiliser imports clog Saurashtra ports

With sudden change in Central government's policy for increasing imports of wheat and fertilisers, Kandla and Mundra port on the western coast are clogged with dumps of DAP, Urea and Wheat.

This has by and large disturbed the balance of the trade affecting exports and creating unavoidable traffic congestion mainly at the two bigger ports of the state - Kandla and Mundra.

Kandla port has close to 25 ships waiting for berth to offload wheat and fertilisers whereas the huge volume of bulk and project cargoes are waiting for ships. According to a senior port official traffic congestion may continue for a few more weeks.

As the Central government has emphasised on the imports of fertilisers and wheat and the scenario which was created in the month of July is seen in the month of November.

According to an industry source, "Forthcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh is one primary reason as to why the government is stressing on increasing imports of wheat and fertilisers. If the fertiliser does not reach farmers well in advance prior to the second round of cultivation which is likely to take place in winter, it would create a political chaos and the political strength of Uttar Pradesh can not be ignored by any party, so more attention is being paid on imports of fertilisers and wheat."

However, this has also created by and large collateral damage in the international trade and business carried through these two major ports.

"Both major ports of the region Kandla & Mundra can handle cargo to the tune of 80,000-90,000 (TEUs) containers every month, but with the unprecedented imports of wheat and fertilisers blocking the port infrastructure, import and exports have suffered in the last couple of weeks, especially the exports from this region," said Girish Joshi, branch manager of Velji Dosabhai & Sons Pvt Ltd., carrying, handling and forwarding agents from Gandhidham (Kandla).

Worst situation is that there is a traffic congestion across the two major ports of the state and vessels are waiting to berth the port, this is generating additional demurrage to the operators because ships cannot berth well in time, as the berths are engaged by the vessels bringing in wheat and fertilisers and there is a waiting period of minimum one week, adds Joshi.

As the international trade has suffered marginally with unprecedented imports of these two commodities in particular blocking majority of port infrastructure, business operators are also of the opinion that prior to taking such decisions, government should discuss the port?s capacity to handle the cargo and necessary scheduling for handling same should be integrated accordingly, "Port is nothing but a static infrastructure and cannot be flexed in tune to the flexible policies of the government," claims a senior official associated with port activities.

"One fine day government announces to increase exports, so infrastructure to support and smoothen outgoing operations at its maximum are installed in place and suddenly government changes its stand and announces to increase imports, so accordingly installed infrastructure cannot be reversed all of a sudden to support the incoming operations," he said.

Prior to taking such decisions, government should hold a brain-storming session with concerned operators, port authorities, carrying-handling agents (CHAs), stevedoring agencies, allied logistics operators and channelise the mobilisation of cargo, rather than just bringing and dumping the stuff, further blocking the entire infrastructure in totality, he adds.