The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is one government body which has started draining huge forex reserves, adding to cost escalation of commodities, and has brought the economy of east and north east India under grave threat. But the government seems to have given little thought to it.
It has been nearly a year now since the KoPT authorities feared closure of the port because of alarming draught conditions. And when there has been an alert, the shipping ministry has taken measures, short term mostly. But the need is to either have a deep draughted port on the Bay of Bengal or to find a new riverine channel and realign the entire port for supporting east and northeast India?s economy.
The UPA-I government had given a budgetary sanction of Rs 10 crore for a study to find a suitable location for deep draughted port somewhere along the coast of Bengal. But nothing came out of it. While the Centre has scrapped the proposal and passed it on to the Bengal government, the ruling CPM, coming around to the realisation that it will in all probability be voted out of power in the next assembly polls, has stopped all action.
After Mamata Banerjee entered the UPA-II cabinet and pushed her loyalist Mukul Roy to the shipping ministry as the junior minister, it was expected that the party would go into an overdrive to force the government to take some concrete steps on KoPT. But nothing has happened.
When ships remain stranded, unable to enter the dock systems of KoPT, importers have to pay demurrage of $ 10,000 per day to foreign shipping lines. This drains the country?s forex reserves. When importers have to pay demurrage for being unable to bring out commodities from the port in time, it adds to the cost escalation of commodities. When port users of the KoPT hinterland have to divert ships to Vizag or Paradeep ports, it adds to the cost of transportation impacting input cost for industrial production, which down the line has an impact on the market. But no one in the government seems to be concerned.
?indronil.roychowdhury@expressindia.com