BADLY AFFECTED: Containers pile up at the Chennai Port terminal, where a section of the workforce is on strike. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: Chennai Port Trust is ready to extend manpower assistance to its privatised container terminal whose operations have come under strain following the ongoing strike by a section of the workforce.

Some 30 operators to man the gantry cranes at the terminal and several `mazdoors' to manage the loading and unloading of the containers have been identified by the port trust, according to its chairman K. Suresh.

The identified personnel performed such duties when the container terminal was operated by the port trust.

Following privatisation of the facility in late 2001, a deal under which the private operator shares slightly over 37 per cent of the revenue with the port trust, the personnel were deployed elsewhere.

"Manpower reinforcements"

Noting that the manpower was in a "state of readiness," Mr. Suresh told The Hindu on Tuesday that the decision to offer such assistance was taken in the backdrop of the potential drop in the revenue share receipt if the performance of the terminal suffered.

He added that the situation at the terminal was getting back to normal with the private operator firm bringing in manpower reinforcements from its facilities in the country and even abroad.

Bad situation

Sources associated with the export-import trade, however, say the situation at the terminal was far from satisfactory with a drop in the container handling and delay in clearance of the cargo boxes.

They also cited a communication sent by the terminal management to the trade indicating around 5,500 export and import containers were waiting to be handled on Wednesday.

Moreover the labour strike, essentially to demand reinstatement of seven employees dismissed by the terminal management sometime ago, resulted in six feeder vessel operators imposing a congestion surcharge ($30 per twenty-foot equivalent unit) on the containers from Saturday.

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