JNPT issues notice to Gateway Terminals as cargo piles up

 

Bangalore/Mumbai: Cargo continued to pile up at all the three terminals of state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), near Mumbai, as talks to resolve a nearly month-long labour dispute over wages at one of its private terminals remained inconclusive.

Workers operating trailers that cart containers from the wharf to the storage yard and vice versa at Gateway Terminals India Pvt. Ltd (GTI) resorted to a go slow in late October, seeking more wages, highlighting the inability of the concession agreement to deal with such situations, said shipping experts. A concession agreement spells out the terms and conditions of a port contract.

The three JNPT terminals in Mumbai handle nearly 50% of India’s container traffic, GTI being the largest. Run by a joint venture between Denmark’s APM Terminals Management BV and Container Corp. of India Ltd (Concor), GTI has shut the gates through which export containers are brought to the terminal for the last 25 days.

GTI says the dispute essentially involved trailer owners and the drivers because it has outsourced these key operations to four transport contractors that bring their own trailers and hire drivers to operate them. In return, the transport contractors are paid by GTI on a per container basis.

“Outsourcing of trailer operations to third parties is common in the container terminal industry. The issue is between the trailer owners and the drivers. We have no role to play in this,” said an official at GTI, requesting anonymity.

“I have no comments to offer,” said Rajieve Krishnan, chief operating officer at GTI, when asked about the losses due to the go-slow. He claimed the port is able to clear the cargo that is discharged and able to load ships on time. “We are in constant dialogue with transporters and we are hopeful that we will resolve the issue by week’s end,” he said.

JNPT, on its part, issued a show-cause notice to GTI on 15 November, seeking reasons for not running the concession agreement properly, said N.N. Kumar, acting chairman of the port. JNPT does not have a full-time chairman after the previous incumbent demitted office in May. GTI has seven days to respond to the notice.

Kumar said he did not subscribe to the view that GTI had no control over the issue. “How can Gateway say it has no control? It is a commercial contract between the terminal operator and the transport contractors. The terminal operator has to cancel the contract with the transporters and hire somebody else if they are not performing. It’s the full responsibility of the terminal operator,” he said.

Ranjay kumar,

PGDM 1st Year.(Mint)..