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Several government-owned ports are functioning without full-time officials at the top.
The Kandla Port, the biggest among them, has the unique distinction of one official holding additional charges of three key posts: Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Financial Advisor.
The Mumbai Port Chairman Ravi Parmar has been holding the additional charge of Kandla since January.
The posts of Deputy Chairman and Financial Advisor at the port have been lying vacant for nearly two years.
The Mormugao Port in Goa does not have regular Chairman. The Mumbai, JNPT, New Mangalore and Paradip ports do not have a full-time Deputy Chairman.
Further, at the Mumbai port, two key posts — Secretary and Chief Engineer — are vacant.
The Kandla port has not had a regular Chairman since December 2013, when PD Vaghela’s term ended. The Shipping Ministry then had recommended HK Makwana, the private secretary to Shipping Minister GK Vasan, for the Chairman’s post but the Department of Personnel and Training did not approve his appointment.
Drop in productivity Until a year ago, Kandla was the biggest port in the country in terms of volume of cargo handled. Last fiscal, its volume dropped 7 per cent to 87 million tonnes and private sector operator Adani Port, which handled 100 million tonnes emerged the leader.
It is not just ports that have top-level jobs lying vacant. The tariff regulator for the ports, TAMP (Tariff Authority for Major Ports), has been functioning without a chairman for over a year.
Port officials point out that in the absence of full-time officials at the helm, decisions on important matters often get delayed as those holding additional charge find it difficult to get time to study issues in detail.
Performance review The new Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, who recently reviewed the performance of all 12 government ports, is reported to have asked for details of the senior-level vacant positions at ports.
He is also reviving the proposal to corporatise (covert into companies) all major ports. Currently these ports are run by board of trustees appointed by the Shipping Ministry.
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