"Roadblock' to Chennai port divert trucks to Ennore

Congested roads which have become a nightmare for multi-wheeler trucks to reach destinations from the historic Chennai Port has resulted in most port users shifting their business and allegiance to the relatively new Ennore port, 24 kilometres away. 

“Chennai Port has forecast a throughput of 50.15 million tonnes of cargo for the current 2016-17 compared to 50.06 million tonnes the previous year,” officials said. “Similarly, container traffic which was 15.47 lakh TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) last year, dipped by 3 per cent with the port being able to achieve only 14.95 lakh TEU this year,” they added. But loss in container traffic was compensated through increase in other cargo including wheat, iron, steel, limestone and barytes by more than one million tonnes, they added. 

The operating income of the port for the current year showed only a marginal increase to Rs 776 crore from the Rs 758 crore a year earlier. Officials also anticipate that controlling avoidable expenditure would increase the operating ratio to 74 per cent from the 70 per cent the previous years. 

This is even though the port is an all-weather harbour which has 24 deep draught berths in three docks (Jawahar, Bharathi and Ambedkar) and ranks third among Indian ports in cargo handling with a round-the-clock process. It has an international-standard passenger terminal while it achieved ‘best efficiency indicators’ including pre-berthing time of 0.98 hours, berthing on arrival and an average ship turnover of 2.01 days. 

Their main competition is from the four-berth Ennore port which was launched in 2001 to decongest and improve environment quality at the Chennai Port. While Chennai  port has good rail connectivity as it is located between the Chennai Beach and Royapuram railway stations, the same cannot be said of its road connectivity. 

Though the port commissioned a Rs 63 crore coastal road in November last year, it did not help much other than an additional entry to the second container terminal. Another inhouse move was the commissioning of the northern coastal road from Gate 1 to the container terminal which divides the roads to the container terminals easing vehicular movement.  

A senior official said, “Though we introduced a host of measures to reduce lorry turn-around and waiting periods, it came to nought. Once the  vehicle leaves the premises, it takes nearly three hours for it to reach Maduravoyal on the outskirts of the city. Only an exclusive coastal terminal to handle coastal cargo, for which work is underway at Rs 80 crore, is expected to increase cargo handling by another one million tonnes annually.”   The port recently started a Rs 17 crore state-of-the-art EXIM (export-import) godowns, while a Rs 16 crore modern cruise terminal is expected to become operational in a few days. 

The port’s advantage is that cruise ships prefer it for it is in the heart of the city. Other amenities being developed include common railway yard, paved storage yards and a bunker berth at a total cost of Rs 200 crore. User-friendly amenities include RFID-based harbour entry system from next year whereby this web-enabled system will allow tranports to print their own passes when it is operational. 

Chennai port officials are eagerly awaiting the development of the elevated highway to Maduravoyal which will enable free and quick movement of vehicular traffic from the port. However, this project was put on the backburner soon after it was mooted and recently the O Panneerselvam-led AIADMK government revived the project during his tenure. The project was again consigned to cold storage when factionalism reared its head in the ruling party. Officials said, “A high level technical committee is studying the modalities of resuming work on the Madhravoyal elevated road.” 

Presently, container lorries reach Bengaluru, Coimbatore and other destinations quicker due to congestion-free road connectivity from Ennore port. Officials believe that Chennai Port will regain its lost glory only if this project becomes a reality as then traffic problems will cease and port users will again make a beeline to this port instead of travelling all the way to Ennore port.