Pranab refuses to anchor here

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The Union Budget has failed to meet the expectations of the Kochi port, which has been given a plan allocation of only Rs 25 crore towards rail connectivity to the Vallarpadam terminal and has received no funds for maintaining the deep dredge leading to it, so essential to ensure easy entry of big ships.

Even the allocation for the rail connectivity will merely cover the money already pumped into the project, says a senior port official.

With no option left the annual maintenance dredging will now have to be done by the port at its own cost, he adds, pointing out that this could leave it poorer by Rs 100 crore. “We had expected budgetary support for a few years till we attained volumes that would fetch us the revenue we wanted. But that has not happened this time as well.

What is surprising is that while Rs 337.7 crore has been allotted to Kolkata port for dredging and maintenance of the river Hooghly and the Haldia Channel, Rs 100.13 crore to the Tuticorin port for capital dredging and Rs 37.82 crore to the Chennai port, sadly there is nothing to support the country’s first transshipment terminal,” he regrets.

The poor allocation in the Budget has a come as a blow for the cash strapped port which has already gone in for a slew of austerity measures and plans to cut its 3,000-strong staff by around 500 through a special voluntary retirement scheme. Even those doing essential functions are not to be spared.

The package involves an ex gratia of 45 days’ emoluments for every completed year of service and payment of salary for the remaining period of service.

Considering its poor financial position, the port had expected the shipping ministry to bear the expenditure on the ex gratia, but has been disappointed on this account too in the Budget. The port authorities have reportedly been told to come up with their own funds for the VRS scheme.

“But when we are struggling to make ends meet, how can we bear such a burden?” asks the officer, recalling that as part of its cost cutting measures introduced since December the port has put a freeze on DA for a year, has said no to leave encashment and overtime pay, and plans to abolish posts that fall vacant in future instead of taking on more staff.

To the port’s dismay while it is receiving none of the funds asked for, the state government has set up a technical committee headed by the Cochin Port Trust chairman, Paul Antony to examine a proposal to develop a major port-cum-shipbuilding centre at Azhikkal near Kannur.