Chennai Customs has decided that public notice register (PNR) containers and direct port delivery (DPD) containers lying at Chennai and Kattupalli ports will be evacuated by rail to the inland container depot (ICD) run by Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) at Tondiarpet from midnight of Saturday to ease congestion.
With container freight stations (CFS) in and around Chennai unable to evacuate PNR containers on time resulting in port congestion, PNR containers awaiting evacuation for more than 48 hours and DPD boxes awaiting clearance for more than 15 days would be moved to ICD Tondiarpet by rail on a first-in-first out (FIFO) basis from Chennai and Kattupalli ports from midnight of Saturday, according to an official.
The huge number of PNR containers laying at Chennai port due to delay in evacuation may lead to choking of terminals very soon, the official added.
Meanwhile, Kattupalli port run by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd said that ships waiting to berth at the port were being cleared on “priority” and operations would be restored to normalcy within 12-14 hours of weakening of Cyclone Burevi.
Following a BusinessLine report that EXIM trade was hit by a logjam at Kattupalli port, the port management said in a statement:
“Post resumption of berthing of vessels at Katupalli port, the backlog of 3-4 vessels (waiting to berth) is being cleared on priority in order to maintain critical supply chain requirements of our business partners. We are confident that the normalcy of operations shall be restored within 12-14 hours of weakening of Cyclone Burevi.”
The port management said that the operations at ports in Chennai cluster, including Kattupalli, were impacted due to cyclone Nivar from 24-26 November.
“During the period, berthing of vessels and yard operations at these ports had to be temporarily suspended in view of the inclement weather. Further, the ports have been impacted by the receding impact of cyclone Burevi resulting in slowing down of port operations because of incessant rains and increased wind speeds. These factors were beyond the control of the port and therefore resulted in slowdown of operations,” Kattupalli Port said.
Katupalli Port handled 18,134 TEUs from 26 November till date with an average of 1,660 TEU’s gate movement on a daily basis, the Port said.