JOC Staff | Jun 12, 2009 3:36PM EDT
A severe terminal congestion at India’s Port of Jawaharlal Nehru prompted port management to seek immediate intervention with Container Corp. of India, the state-owned intermodal logistics provider.
The move comes after the backlog of import boxes, destined for northern inland container depots, reached alarming levels at the private terminals operated by DP World and A.P. Moller-Maersk.
“While we understand the imbalance between imports and exports at this stage, Concor could have averted this congestion by interacting with shipping lines continuously to envisage the flow of cargo well in advance as the port has no role in nomination of import containers to a particular inland depot,” the authority said in a communiqué to Concor.
After reviewing the situation, Nehru earlier agreed to allocate an additional dedicated rail line to facilitate quicker evacuation of accumulated boxes from the DP World facility.
Port officials also emphasized the need for better coordination between Concor and railways to streamline the flow of traffic from the terminal.
“Mere placement of more trains with utter disregard to the prevailing position will not help in reducing the overall backlog,” they added.
Nearly sixty percent of India’s containerized traffic moves through the west coast hub. In fiscal 2008-09 ended March 31, volume at the three terminals totaled 3.95 million TEUs compared with 4.06 million TEUs the previous year.