17th November, 2010

Final Update

The four-day-long agitation by truck drivers in North Chennai was called off on Tuesday 16th November, 2010 after Chennai Port Trust Chairman Mr. Atulya Misra promised that road repairs would be taken up in a month and four-laning of the Ennore-Manali Highway would begin in February 2011. Confederation of Surface Transport in Tamil Nadu President R Sugumar said the proposed strike on November 22 was also called off. The long queue of trucks parked along arterial roads in Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Ennore and Minjur had been a serious hindrance. “I found it difficult to drive in Madhavaram, Manali, Ponneri and Minjur. Amid the water stagnation and trucks parked on road sides, even two-wheelers could not travel faster than 30kmph,” said Gunasekaran, a call taxi driver. Handling of cargo handling at the Chennai port was also hit. “Only after consignments unloaded from ships are taken out can containers waiting outside the harbour come in. Both import and export of cargo movement has been seriously affected by the strike,” sources in the CPT said. While a section of the media said CPT suffered a loss of about 60 crore, Misra said it couldn’t be termed a loss since the waiting ships had not gone back.

16th November, 2010

Update 2

To know the actual senario of container movement traffic congestion experienced at Chennai.   Since the trailer strike put hold container in/out movement from 0930 hrs on 13^th Nov to till now to day (i.e. close to 60 hrs).    

MDS01 Terminal status:

Vessel discharge/loading operation was not affected till now today, terminal yard stock is mounted to 12,411 Teus (i.e. Imports 10,364 teus + Exports 2,047 teus) which is fully utilized against it’s normal handling capacity of 7500 teus.   Looks like any moment terminal may send circular to the vessel operators not to berth their vessels viewing unable to accept further imports into their yard, untill the existing import boxes are evacuated to off-dock CFS.

MDS02 Terminal status:

Vessel discharge/loading operation is normal, terminal yard stock is occupied only 20% (i.e. Imports 2785 teus + Exports 188 teus = Total 2973 teus)       

Container in/out is become standstill for above mentioned two terminal facilities
Below press release appeared in todays Daily News paper “THE HINDU”
Conciliation meet on trailer lorry drivers' strike inconclusive

CHENNAI: A conciliation meeting organised by the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) with the various stakeholders on Monday failed to yield the desired result as the trailer-lorry drivers and cleaners have decided to take a call on their flash strike only on Tuesday.

The Trailer-Lorry Drivers and Cleaners of Anna Labour Union struck work since Saturday, demanding that the authorities concerned repair the road from the MFL to Ponneri, about eight km, on priority basis as it is not motorable. Citing the same reason, the Trailers Lorry Owners Association has decided to stay off the road from November 21.

As there was no movement of container-laden vehicles since Saturday, export and import activities at the ChPT came to a standstill. However, the impact is likely to be felt in the coming days. To find a lasting solution, ChPT chairman Atulya Misra, along with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Project Manager and DP World Chennai officials, convened a meeting that was attended by over 30 members representing the lorry owners, drivers and cleaners.

Two-hour meet

At the meeting that lasted nearly two hours, Mr. Misra said that they needed two months to repair the badly affected road and two years for completion of four-lane Ennore Manali Road Improvement Project (EMRIP). Besides, it was also decided to carry out spot inspection on Tuesday.

Talking to The Hindu, Chennai Port Trust Trailer Lorry Drivers and Cleaners Anna Labour Union Secretary K. Asai Thambi said: “Though we have been raising our voice for the past few years, nothing much was done on the Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti (TPP) Road. We are fed up with hearing such kind of assurances and have decided to accompany the inspection squad. We will take a call about our stir on Tuesday.”

Plea to ChPT

Trailer Owners Association Secretary S.R. Raja said that they have asked the ChPT officials to carry out the patch work before November 21 so that it can be made motorable, otherwise, they will go ahead with their proposed strike from November 22 onwards.

“When the roads can be repaired within 24 hours for VIP movement, why can't they do it for us within a week as it earns sizeable foreign exchange for the country?” asked a port-user.

Even during the last week joint review meeting held with the Union Food Secretary at the Secretariat, oil company representatives said that lorry drivers were not willing to do more than one trip and it also added to the delay in supplying adequate number of refill cylinders to the consumers.

“The road is in a very bad shape. I travel by train to a certain point to go to my office,” said a top official of Ennore Port.

Shipping Secretary, K. Mohandas said that unfortunately everyone found fault with Chennai Port, even for things that were beyond their control. The tenders for EMRIP would be floated by the month-end and it was being executed by the NHAI.

“More than 1,000 container lorries are stranded outside the Port premises. It might take more than a week to clear the backlog and we have to pay demurrage and congestion charges for no fault of ours,” said an industry representative.

According to R. Sugumar, president of the Confederation of Surface Transport, Tamil Nadu, the officials who addressed the meeting said the road repair work would be completed by January. This has to be done as soon as possible as the roads serve as significant connectivity to Chennai Port and Ennore Port.

We will keep you posted of the situation.

15th November, 2010

Update 1

Chennai Trailer Strike - Container in/out totally parallized

Due to heavy rains and cyclone named JAL threat, terminal’s in/out movement operation was suspended for nearly 22 hrs (i.e. between two to three intermittent breaks) in between 7^th to 8^th Nov and again container movements was hampered further for nearly seven hours on 10^th Nov 2010 due to local politician’s family funeral procession, for which the road was blocked by the RTO.

Adding woes to the already congested traffic at Chennai, a truck driver while reversing his laden container trailer on Ennore Manali Road was thrashed by few miscreants on the 12^th of Nov 2010 (i.e: Friday) night. This had triggered a flash strike on the 13^th Nov, 2010 (Saturday) morning by truck drivers at Gate-1.

This strike has resulted in a complete stoppage of all movements at Gate-1 by the drivers seeking action against those who attacked the driver and also the citing bad road condition of Ennore Manali Express Way.  The Ennore Manali Road Way is riddled with potholes and road conditions have worsened after the recent monsoon. This has gravely affected the traffic movement leading to Chennai Port. The truckers are demanding speedy implementation of EMRIP (Ennore Manali Road Improvement Project).

The Chennai port officials are scheduled for a meeting with the striking truckers to resolve the same and resume the operations.