Survey slams ports' performance

The average turnaround time of major Indian ports continues to be way below the desired average, undermining the competitiveness of Indian ports, Economic Survey said on Thursday.

"Despite adequate capacity and modern handling facilities, the average turnaround time of major Indian ports was 3.87 days in 2008-09, compared to 10 hours in Hong Kong. This undermines the competitiveness of Indian ports," said the Economic Survey 2009-10, tabled in the Parliament.

As one of the remedial measures, it has called for better connectivity of ports with hinterland to avoid congestions and faster movement of goods.

"Since ports are not adequately linked to the hinterland, the evacuation of carge is slow, leading to congestion," the Survey said.

It added, however, that all port trusts have set up groups with representatives of the highways authority, railways and state governments to improve rail-road connectivity of ports.

The survey noted that the pre-berthing waiting time at major ports, however, showed an improvement from 11.40 hours in 2007-08 to 9.55 hours in 2008-09.

But it added, "Significant inter-port variations in pre-berthing waiting time persisted."

India has 12 major ports that carry about 75 per cent of the total traffic and 200 non-major ports, of which 66 handle traffic.

The Survey said that annual aggregate cargo-handling capacity of major ports increased from 532.07 million tones in 2007-08 to 574.77 million tonnes in 2008-09, with a marginal decline in turnaround from 3.93 days.

However, the growth in cargo handling in 2008-09 was just about 2.1 per cent, compared to 12 per cent in 2007-08.

The containerised traffic, which carries about half of the world's traded goods, has shown an impressive annual The Survey said that annual aggregate cargo-handling capacity of major ports increased from 532.07 million tonnes in 2007-08 to 574.77 million tonnes in 2008-09, with a marginal decline in turnaround from 3.93 days.

However, the growth in cargo handling in 2008-09 was just about 2.1 per cent, compared to 12 per cent in 2007-08.

The containerised traffic, which carries about half of the world's traded goods, has shown an impressive annual growth of over 11 per cent during the five years to 2008-09.

The survey said that privatisation of ports has gathered momentum and the government has put in place an enabling policy framework which includes areas like service and management contracts.

Besides, it added, "Areas that have been opened up to the private sector on BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) basis include construction of cargo-handling berths and dry docks, container terminals and warehousing facilities and ship-repair facilities."