Kochi Port's prospects of attracting mainline ships’ better now

Kochi: Several shipping lines are looking at the possibilities of calling their mainline vessels at Kochi Port with improvements in the productivity of container vessels and their faster turnaround coupled with the increased draught conditions in the channel.

Senior officials at the India Gateway Terminal (IGT) said the productivity at the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal had improved considerably, which was evident from the outstanding performance of the container vessel Kota Hormat recently by achieving 805 moves in 21 hours using two quay cranes.

Likewise, another container vessel Belgian Express has achieved a berth productivity of 32 moves per hour.

Mr Suresh Joseph, General Manager, IGT, credited this achievement to improved efficiency in the work processes, better availability of machinery and committed and skilled manpower.

The vessel operators, Matheson Keels and Maersk commended IGT on its constant endeavour to facilitate smoother operations and improved productivity at the port, he said.

The number of container vessels calling at Kochi has also increased from 27 sailings in January 2005 to 44 in December 2005 and the average turnaround of vessels has also improved from 39 hours of berth stay to 22.11 hours.

Mr Joseph said the company had taken various technical and productivity enhancing improvements at the terminal, which included commissioning of the pre-stage complex to provide a one-stop solution for customs and IGT documentations for all export containers, a 120-metre platform for round the clock on wheel examination of import containers etc.

As pre-stage complex is a round the clock operation with customs and IGT paperwork handled under one roof, the delays experienced at the RGCT gate complex in the past has been eliminated. The average turnaround time of vehicles at the pre-stage from entry to exit is now 45 minutes. Exporters now have the advantage of prompt and efficient services that reduce procedural hassles and save time considerably, he said.

The setting up of an exclusive export stack at the quayside and a separate area demarcated for empty containers have effectively streamlined the receipt and delivery process of containers.

Improvements in the process inside the terminal such as installation of Navis software for vessel and yard planning, and proper traffic regulation within the terminal have reduced the average waiting time of trucks inside the terminal from about 4 hours in April 2005 to about 40 minutes now.

The average waiting time at the gate complex has also dropped to about 3-5 minutes, ensuring smooth flow of vehicles into and out of the terminal.