Deep pockets and a lot of patience
India has potential, but you need deep pockets and an awful lot of patience
Remember that base line rule in port planning, supply of new capacity must take place in advance of demand?
How then could Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s number one container port, get itself into such a state that cargo shippers are now actively seeking to avoid the port to bypass the congestion that is manifest there?
Well you could say that if this situation was going to happen anywhere it would happen in India. It is not unkind to say that India has a reputation for excessive bureaucracy and generally making a meal out of things, the net result of which is to slow everything down.
Some would say that this is a culture that has to be “experienced” before anything meaningful is achieved.
In some ways then it is hardly a surprise that it is five years or so since the proposal was first mooted for a 4.8m teu fourth container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port and still a shovel full of soil has not been turned for the terminal’s construction.
It has at last been decided who has been nominated the successful bidder, namely PSA International in partnership with ABG Ports, but arriving at this point has been a ponderous process and still (at the time of writing) the contract has not been awarded.
There was a two year long legal wrangle initiated by APM Terminals disputing the fact that it was not allowed to bid. The Supreme Court eventually decided it could bid but in the final analysis the company decided not to.
Clearly India has immense container potential but as someone once said “you do need deep pockets and an awful lot of patience to unleash it".
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