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Box services reintroduced at New Mangalore Port

Our Bureau

MANGALORE, March 7

CONTAINER services have been reintroduced at the New Mangalore Port amid speeches which claimed that the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) has made a `tryst with destiny' and that the `time had now come to redeem that pledge.'

A function to mark the occasion was held at NMPT with port officials, the district administration represented by the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police of Dakshina Kannada district, the Customs Commissioner of the Mangalore region, the President of the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), and even the two labour trustees of the port trust making speeches about the need to `move with the times.' NMPT also hopes to set up a full-fledged container terminal in the future.

Container services, a long-standing desire of the trading community of the region which has had to incur `extra' expenditure operating through Chennai, Tuticorin and other ports and has been consistently claiming that resumption of container services at NMPT would lead to the `overall development of the hinterland', had remained suspended since July 1995 and have now been reintroduced after a gap of five-and-a-half years.

Earlier, an agreement to resume container services was signed between the leaders of the port's labour unions and the NMPT Chairman in November 1998 and once again six months ago.

Furthermore, an assurance was also sought from the industrialists and exporters of the region that the container traffic per month would not be less that 500 TEUs.

In fact, at an interaction meeting with the NMPT Chairman, Capt. R. Ramkumar, organised by KCCI last year, uncertainties regarding an assured committed cargo and the lack of a direct rail link between Bangalore and Mangalore were cited as some of the rea sons for the sluggish progress in attracting container traffic.

With the arrival of mv Actuaria, a container vessel of X-Press Container Lines (UK) Ltd and the unloading of 50 containers of P&O Nedlloyds, container services have now been officially resumed after several hiccups along the way. Kinship Services (India) Pvt Ltd were the handling agents for P&O, the mainline operators. Worldwide Shipping Inc were the stevedores and terminal operators, while Patvolk were the steamer agents.