Kolkata : India is losing Rs. 1,600 crore annually to foreign ports as its ports are unable to handle larger ships, a top port official said and urged the Government to dredge all ports in the country to a minimum depth of 14 metres.

 

"Because of the inability of our ports to handle larger  and huge ships, the country has to lose out Rs. 1,600 crore annually to foreign ports.

 

As such, all the ports in the country must be dredged to a minimum depth of 14 metres while the hub ports must be dredged to 17 metres depth," said L Radhakrishnan, Chairman of Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

 

He also said  JNPT, which handled almost 50% of the container cargo in 2011-12, has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 12.06 percent during the period 1999-2012.

 

Mr. Radhakrishnan also rued the central government's lack of funding for dredging projects.

 

 "The sovereign authority has to fund capital dredging. Without its support, individual ports are not in position to carry out the process," said Radhakrishnan, adding that the JNPT would be spending Rs.1,570 crore this year on dredging operation. The public private participation (PPP) model could be another way for dredging activities, he said.

 

He also emphasised on containerisation of cargo, saying the containers yield better handling with no or less damage and providing optimum storage capacity utilisation.