Ten-years of stalling projects runs Mumbai's container port agroundINDIA's largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) in Navi Mumbai, has run aground as its struggles to cope stalled projects, improving road, rail and waterway connectivity and resisting decrees for lower tariffs.
The container port, established in 1989 and managed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), handles 60 per cent of India's maritime container cargo, but it could handle more if its projects had been implemented, reports Delhi's Business Standard.
It has been 10 years since JNP saw the last project commenced - what is now known as the Gateway Terminals - which added 1.8 million TEU capacity.
Last year, JNP awarded a 330-metre terminal to Dubai Port World, an agreement for which is yet to be finalised. The capacity addition of this project would be a meagre 800,000 million TEU for a port operating at over 130 per cent capacity utilisation at 4.1 million TEU.
The port's INR80 billion (US$1.4 billion) fourth container terminal has remained stuck and would be up for re-bidding in July. The port trust has lined up projects (since December 2010) worth INR500 billion till 2020. "Fast implementation of projects is important. Currently, for every two ships, we are accepting one. Ships should not have to wait for berth, it should be the other way round. This can happen only when capacity is enhanced," said former JNPT chairman L Radhakrishnan.
Efficient connectivity is the biggest problem. The dedicated freight corridor still remains a faraway dream and the road connectivity at the port remains abysmal, with serpentine queues of trucks, said the report.
The rate-setting Tariff Authority of Major Ports is another problem after its decree forced down tariffs 44 per cent.
Mean competition looms from Mundra which is attracting some of the largest ships capable of docking in India with its 15.5 metres alongside and without nearly the same level of landside congestion.
The container port, established in 1989 and managed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), handles 60 per cent of India's maritime container cargo, but it could handle more if its projects had been implemented, reports Delhi's Business Standard.
It has been 10 years since JNP saw the last project commenced - what is now known as the Gateway Terminals - which added 1.8 million TEU capacity.
Last year, JNP awarded a 330-metre terminal to Dubai Port World, an agreement for which is yet to be finalised. The capacity addition of this project would be a meagre 800,000 million TEU for a port operating at over 130 per cent capacity utilisation at 4.1 million TEU.
The port's INR80 billion (US$1.4 billion) fourth container terminal has remained stuck and would be up for re-bidding in July. The port trust has lined up projects (since December 2010) worth INR500 billion till 2020. "Fast implementation of projects is important. Currently, for every two ships, we are accepting one. Ships should not have to wait for berth, it should be the other way round. This can happen only when capacity is enhanced," said former JNPT chairman L Radhakrishnan.
Efficient connectivity is the biggest problem. The dedicated freight corridor still remains a faraway dream and the road connectivity at the port remains abysmal, with serpentine queues of trucks, said the report.
The rate-setting Tariff Authority of Major Ports is another problem after its decree forced down tariffs 44 per cent.
Mean competition looms from Mundra which is attracting some of the largest ships capable of docking in India with its 15.5 metres alongside and without nearly the same level of landside congestion.