Is India ready to handle a rebound in the container trade? This is the question posed by Captain Sandeep Mehta, chief executive of Mundra Port.
Speaking at the recent India Port Expansion and Capacity Upgrading Conference, Captain Mehta noted that while recession has thrown a life line to port infrastructure development because project delays have been swallowed by the recession, container capacity in North West India is still insufficient to handle projected growth.
Since purely physical expansion is constrained by a limited supply of available land, especially in urban centre ports, plus escalating environmental concerns, improving productivity appears to be the only viable solution.
Capt Mehta went on to say: “Ports should have adequate draughts to cater to the new generation of container vessels in order to achieve economies of scale. Further, tugs and pilots should be sufficient so as to free up the berth as soon as operations are completed, ensuring higher berth utilisation.” He added that continuous dredging should be undertaken for ensuring the draught is maintained – an ongoing issue for some Indian ports.
However, he said that overall, port evacuation is the critical factor in determining the actual capacity of the terminal, and so a port should have adequate facilities in terms of rail and road connectivity.
He concluded that, with around 70% of the Indian cargo moving to and from the hinterland, it is critical for the port to have sufficient infrastructure, and further, the natural bottlenecks should be addressed by developing container freight stations in order to decongest the port.
