Article - 108 Week 34 | To Be Waylaid By Hazira

Article - 108 Week 34 |  

To Be Waylaid By Hazira

The port users of Nhava Sheva have been on the receiving end, for far too long. The private Terminals have proved to be as unreliable and inefficient as the ports run by our government. The future has lost its sheen in Nhava Sheva. PAP, Unions, TAMP,  JNPT, DGS, MMD, Ministry, Private Greed, mis-management, and the unique rent extracting geographical location have all taken their pound of flesh from the helplessly reticent port users. Huge land acquisitions in the name of SEZ have pushed the land prices to mind-numbing heights in the vicinity of Nhava Sheva. Such prohibitive land prices have almost rendered it impossible for productive manufacturing Units to set shop in the vicinity. All we are left with, is a demanding, hostile, and non-productive labour force, an expensive & inefficient port, a handful of industries with sagging bottom lines (wanting to sell their land at a high price and move else where), and a gate to the consumption of nearly twenty million innocent mouths. A typical "Kolkattan Syndrome".

The new Terminal in Hazira will be a game changer. It's proximity to Mumbai will offer a salvation from the excesses of Nhava Sheva. It tacitly promises all the basics of a well functioning container terminal - those basics unattainable in Nhava Sheva. Being a spirited private enterprise, supported by the State government, this will give Nhava Sheva a run for its money. With better roads in place and its proximity of 250 Kms from Mumbai, even the importers and exporters in the vicinity of Mumbai would head towards Hazira. Living in the air of Mumbai, we all love Nhava Sheva. But our sentiments can take us only that much. Nhava Sheva will be our second preference. ICD movements would be similarly preferred from Hazira. It's a wakeup call for Nhava Sheva to pull up its socks or languish in its self-indulgent hubris with slow and sure decay - like the "Kolkattan way".

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Brgds

Capt Rath (Skype Gtalk MSN :  psrath)

Econship

Quicker Simpler Better

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