Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005 |
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Logistics
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Shipping `Kolkata port may need more road-rail linkages' Our Bureau
Kolkata , Oct. 17 THE prosperity of Kolkata port may need active cooperation between rail, road and river, better management of rural prosperity and infrastructure (including Highways) and revitalisation of the river traffic towards East of Kolkata for movement of containers to Bangladesh through the inner channels of the Sunderbans delta. Some may call this somewhat utopian, or even outlandish, but the suggestion needs serious consideration in the context of the future of the Calcutta Dock System, which supports a `sui generis' river port, now in its 135th year of operation; the suggestion also involves more rail-road linkages on the basis of a new transportation model, so that more highways can come into the Kolkata port system. Delivering the Kolkata Port Trust Anniversary Lecture, 2005, at the 135th anniversary celebrations of the port here on Monday, Dr Barun De, Founder-Director of Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, said "if investment levels increase in Chhattisgarh and Jharkand industries, new industrial development takes places west of the Hooghly river bank, and if the north of the Ganges can be developed and linked with Nepal and Bhutan, things may look up for Kolkata port." According to him, the process of regeneration of these derelict series of anchorages on a silting, shoaled river, beset by "bores, bends and bars", was constrained by the delay in pulling out of the colonial context of old Calcutta's trade and industry. Analysing the historical perspective of the development of the port in a geo-political context, Prof De said the port was a series of anchorages, docks, storage areas and offices that stretch some 118 km southwards down the tidal estuarine stretch of the Hooghly river - from the metropolitan area right up to Haldia. And from there, it is another 80 km to the open sea of the uppermost part of the Bay of Bengal. He said the lack of demand during the Second World War (caused by the Japanese invasion of South Asia), the 1946 communal carnage and the 1947 partition (particularly of Bengal), the freight rate equalisation policy which benefited open choices for other ports in the country and industrial indiscipline in Kolkata-Asansol/Dhanbad belt led to a non-development policy for the port. Industrially, he felt, the region's limited demand for machines or skills were serviced by a technology that did not breed capital formation or a sustained work ethic. He, however, conceded that the opening of Haldia (in 1977) has led to a shift, and "the real change came with the container revolution in shipping. Stressing on the need to study the technical variables for increasing the volume of traffic handled by Kolkata port, he said the implications of "Looking East" for Kolkata, at present, more by sea than by road or rail (of which there is still slack) are being studied. According to Dr A.K. Chanda, Chairman, KPT, the huge potential of a riverine port can best be exploited through a sound system of inland waterways, which sadly, was a neglected area as far as the Kolkata port was concerned. The shift will have to take place, perhaps southwards, along the upstream of the River Hooghly, towards Sagar and the Sandheads.
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