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Work at ports in South badly hit

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, Jan. 18

OPERATIONS at Chennai and Tuticorin ports were paralysed due to the indefinite strike called by the five major federations of port and dock workers unions.

Sources said that vessel movement was affected at both the ports, while cargo handling came to a standstill from Monday midnight following the strike. According to officials of the two port trusts, cargo movement from and to the ports was badly affected.

Meanwhile, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), in a press release, has said that if the dispute was not settled at the earliest, it would not hesitate to mobilise international support and solidarity for the striking workers. The Federa tion had issued an Action Alert to its unions worldwide, the release says.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has appealed to the port and dock workers to call off the strike. Mr. Navratan Samdria, President, FIEO, said that the strike will adversely affect the movement of export cargo.

KOCHI: Movement of cargo to and from the Kochi port came to a standstill on Tuesday. The only exception was the discharge of crude and sulphur which went on smoothly through mechanical systems, official sources at the port said.

Over 4,500 employees of the port did not report for duty and just Class I and Class II employees were present. Export movement through the Kochi port was arrested as not a single container arrived at the port.

At present, there are three vessels at berth at the port and another four are waiting at the outer channel. Movement of vessels to and from the port have also been affected due to the strike by the mooring staff. Port has sought the help of the Indian Na vy for the movement of the ships to and from the harbour.

One cement vessel Al Mansoor was taken out by the Indian Navy from the harbour on Tuesday afternoon. Naval help has been requisitioned just for moving vessels to and from the harbour and would not be sought for anything else, official sources said.

``As the port was not fully mechanised, movement of cargo and containers have become very difficult and hardly any movement was visible at the port premises today'' official sources said.

MANGALORE: The strike affected work at the port here on Tuesday. However, according to NMPT sources, some work was being executed with the help of the coast guards and naval staff with the officers of the port taking care of essential services. A section of the workers also reportedly attended duty on the first shift.

According to the sources, `mechanical work' which does not involve much labour is progressing with iron ore being loaded on to one ship for Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL) and a couple of oil tankers also being loaded and discharged. A control roo m has also been set up to keep constant vigil and monitor the situation round the clock.

VISAKHAPATNAM: The impact of the strike on the loading and unloading operations at Vizag port was only marginal.

Mobilising workers from its own traffic department and the private workers' pool managed by the local Stevedores Association, the port could handle 10,000 tonnes of cargo during the first shift on Tuesday, involving seven vessels.

Given the average handling rate of about one lakh tonnes for a 24-hour operation on 20 berths of the port, the cargo handled during the first shift on the first day of the strike on seven berths can be called near normal, port officials said.

The officials said the impact of the strike was not felt particularly because only seven ships _ three coking coal, two thermal coal, one metallurgical coke and one iron ore vessels _ were berthed at the port.

Some shippers are exploring the option of diverting their ships to the neighbouring deep-water port at Kakinada, now being privately managed by Cocanada Port Company Pvt Ltd, a special-purpose company of the Singapore-based International Seaports Pte Ltd , if the strike continued for some more days.

A senior official of the Cocanada Port Company said that currently the three berths (total quay length of 610 mts) at the port were vacant and efforts were being made to take any ships that might be diverted from Vizag. ``We can only take geared ships. W e can handle cargoes such as coal, containers and steel,'' the official pointed out.