Kandla De-Congestion Steps Prune Containers Waiting Period

The Kandla Port Trust's revised productivity-linked berthing policy, which was introduced in September, in order to ease the congestion at the port has proved fruitful.

According to the authorities, on account of the revised berthing policy the throughout in dry-cargo handling in October and November resulted in an average growth rate of 5 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. The container vessels get berth on an arrival without any waiting period and the average waiting period of vessels has come down from 10 days to 2-3 days.

It was also added that a record quantity of 10.65 lakh tonnes of dty cargo was handled during October, surpassing the previous record of 9.88 lakh tonne.

Single day handling records for agri-products and DAP has surpassed previous records. Average throughput has increased by 10,000 m/t per day, and average throughput per ship berth has gone up by 300 m/t.

KPT said the number of vessels handled stood at 574 during the year up to November compared to 465 vessels handled over the last year. In order to minimise the congestion and waiting time of vessels, mooring were provided for the vessels to work in stream, as a result 110 vessels taken the advantage during the year up to November against 24 vessels during the last year. 72 vessels have taken the advantage of night navigation from November 7.