Evaluating Options To Make JNPA A Transhipment Port, Says Chairman

The authority is helping one of its terminal operators—PSA Singapore—to utilise the surplus yard space at the Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal for transhipment, according to its chairman.

“We want to do the transhipment, but the JNPA ecosystem is designed for the gateway port,” Unmesh Wagh, the authority's chairman, told NDTV Profit in an exclusive interview.

Wagh said JNPA's current transhipment capacity is only 1%, but they have undertaken a study and are also working with the terminal operator as they have a large yard that can be used for transhipment.

Transhipment is required when cargoes require an intermediate halt, as big mother vessels carrying them over long distances cannot travel to shallow draft ports. Feeder vessels take over the cargo from transhipment hubs and deliver it to the destination ports.

There are several disadvantages to not having a transhipment port, as it results in a higher cost of export-import trade. Higher freight, charter and port handling charges result in excessive costs while delaying the delivery at times by over a month.

"PSA is mulling this idea of having a transhipment (traffic) and we are helping them,” Wagh said. “We want to use this port to its fullest, be it transhipment or gateway... Some headway is expected within the next six months."

The authority expects the port's transhipment capacity to rise to 10–12% from 1% at present in a few years.

Even the recently approved Vadhavan Port at Palghar near Mumbai has been designed to accommodate the largest vessels built in the world with 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) that can handle transhipment traffic.

India, at present, has no operational transhipment port; however, there are three ports that are under implementation—including Vizhinjam Port, the International Container Transhipment Port at Galathea Bay in the Great Nicobar Islands, and the Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal at the Cochin Port.

Lack of transhipment ports means India cannot cater to cargo bound for its neighbours, such as Bangladesh. Bangladesh-bound cargo coming from the US or the European Union unloads at Colombo, Singapore or Kelang in Malaysia and is then delivered by feeder vessels.

However, over the coming decade, it's expected that India will have the transhipment capacity to compete with hubs in Colombo, Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia.