Can Roy curb cartelisation at Paradip Port?

Sisir Pradhan | The Dollar Business

The highly unionized environment at the port has so far halted or delayed mechanization work. Another challenge for Paradip is rising clout of ports controlled by Adani Group on the East Coast

  Paradip/New Delhi: Rinkesh Roy, a 1992 Batch IRTS officer from Odisha, has taken charge as fulltime chairman at Paradip Port on Wednesday. Earlier Visakhapatnam (Vizag) Port chairman MT Krishna Babu had the additional charge of the port.Roy has a tough task at hand to curb alleged cartelization of stevedoring operation and allocation of labour force by Port Management Committee, Paradip Port Stevedores Association in general, and Orissa Stevedores Limited (OSL) in particular. The highly unionized environment at the port has so far halted or delayed mechanization work. Another challenge for Paradip is rising clout of ports controlled by Adani Group on the East Coast. Adani Group head Gautam Adani whose proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been widely covered by media - the group owns and runs a mechanized port at Dhamra, which is located just 225 km north of Paradip Port Dhamra Port has on its board Santosh Kumar Mohapatra as a director who was earlier the chairman of Paradip Port. Moreover, OSL Group which has been in the news for its strong hold on cargo handling operation at Paradip Port, has recently re-commissioned a Port at Gopalpur, approximately 270 kms south of Paradip Port. Notably, Paradip which has a record of being second highest bulk cargo handling port has been running without a fulltime chairman since January 2015 following the repatriation of IRTS officer Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra to his cadre service. Prior to Roy taking over charge, MT Krishna Babu, chairman of Visakhapatnam Port had been Chairman-in charge at Paradip Port since then. Time and again several reports of irregularity in tendering process and allocation of cargo handling and stevedoring operation has come to the fore at Paradip Port with several senior officials coming under scanner for graft charges.  It is worth pointing out that Ministry of Shipping is yet to appoint a full-time chairman at India’s largest public sector port, Kandla which is located just 72 kms north of Adani Group’s flagship port at Mundra since December 2013. PD Vaghela was the last full-time chairman at the Port. Ravi M. Parmar, Chairman, Mumbai Port Trust, took over additional charge at Kandla Port on January 20, 2014.  

December 24, 2015  | 02:25pm IST