Once again there is a massive port congestion in the Indian port of Chennai/Madras.
The Chennai Port is once again heading towards a spell of congestion.
On Wednesday, container trucks were stranded up to Manali, while the inventory of laden containers crossed the 11,000 mark after drivers went on a flash strike from 5 p.m. following an altercation with a Central Industrial Security Force official at the harbour’s zero gate on trespassing issue.
A road accident near Kasimedu fishing harbour also disrupted traffic for two to three hours.
On Wednesday morning, over 7,000 containers containing incoming cargo and 4,000 export containers were stuck inside the harbour premises.
On March 18, external trailer drivers went on a flash strike after one of them was arrested for attempting to move out with a wrong container owing to a mix-up. The strike was called off on March 19.
Talking to The Hindu, a customs house agent said: “We are moving towards the pre-August 2011 days, a period that witnessed a delay in berthing of vessels owing to congestion and the disruption in movement of export and import containers, which forced shipping lines to levy Chennai Trade Recovery charges. We may see the shipping lines using this opportunity to squeeze the trade once again.”
“For the last few days, we are working hard to bring back normality. However, export containers are not able to enter the harbour easily as police are diverting the traffic at two or three points. As a result, it takes more than 12 hours to reach the main gate from Ernavur,” said a terminal operator.
He also said that the strict checking of containers by Customs officials in the wake of the recent mix-up, which consumed about five minutes per vehicle, reduced the number of containers entering or leaving the gate. There were only a handful of Customs officials at the zero gate.
A press note from the Chennai Container Terminal Ltd stated that a delay in gate clearances caused the queuing up of trailers inside the port and the terminal. To expedite the processing of import containers, it requested Customs to post more officers.
Refuting the charge that the Customs was the main cause for delay in turnaround of trucks, a Customs official said that sufficient number of officials had been posted at zero gate.
“Altogether 21 officers are working in different shifts. At any given time, seven to eight officers are manning the main gate. It takes a minimum of 15 to 20 seconds to check each vehicle. We would also like to clear as many containers as possible as any blockage would hit our revenue target.”
Fed up with the third strike in recent times, a logistics service provider said such a situation would prevail until the completion of the Ennore-Manali Road. “Will the officials in the Shipping Ministry and ChPT authorities take note of the situation?” he wondered.
