A detailed note prepared by the Mumbai Port Trust (MBPT) which was discussed at the recent board meeting clearly says that the port's performance causes concern when seen in the background of traffic handled by other major ports during 1997-98, which was invariably higher than 1996-97. Traffic analysis of major ports shows that total volume handled has been growing at about 10 per cent annually during the last five years.

"Mumbai Port however recorded the lowest overall growth rate of just 1.09 per cent annually over the same period. In fact, it was the only port which registered negative growth during the last three years.

Petroleum (POL) productshave always been the major contributor to traffic handled at Mumbai Port. POL traffic reached a peak of 20.62 million tonnes in 1993-94 and after hovering at around 20 million tonnes in the following two years, it has shown a declining trend. The position has worsened in the first two months of 1998-98 with the port handling a mere 1.53 million tonnes of POL traffic in April and 0.93 million tonnes in May this year.

Since the discovery of an oil field at Bombay High, part of crude oil produced there is exported to coastal refineries. Export of Bombay High crude reached a peak of almost 10 million tonnes in 1995-96. It has, since, been on the decline, down to 8.1 million tonnes in 1996-97 and 6.4 million tonnes in 1997-98 which has caused a fall in POL traffic.

It is unlikely that the target of 17.7 million tonnes of crude handling as projected by the Oil Coordination Committee is unlikely to be met as the existing capacity of refineries in Mumbai Port will not be further expanded from the present 13million tonnes per annum. Moreover, there seems to be no signs of Bombay High production going up.

Consequently, the existing POL handling capacity of 21 million tonnes will remain partly unused. The ongoing projects--replacement of submarine pipelines and modernisation of jetties 1,2,3 at Jawahar Dweep--when completed will further enhance POL handling capacity of the port by 8 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes.

Though traffic handled at the docks reached an all time high of 14.86 million tonnes during 1997-98, it showed only marginal increase over the 1996-97 traffic of 14.75 million tonnes. Further analysis of docks traffic shows that the percentage share of containerised traffic has gone up while that of non-containerised traffic has decreased indicating that more and more break-bulk cargo is getting containerised.

The analysis of monthly container traffic handled at Mumbai port during 1997-98 shows that after remaining at the level of over 50,000 TEUs during May, 1997 to December, 1997, thetraffic has fallen below 50,000 TEUs from January, 1998 and remained so upto March, 1998. It continued to be below 50,000 TEUs in April and May too.

"As against the falling trend in container traffic experienced by Mumbai Port, container traffic handled by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) has been growing and in the month of March this year not only overtook Mumbai Port but crossed 50,000 mark for the first time," the note said. This has been mainly due to the shifting of the Maersk Lines and American President Line who have started bringing bigger ships to JNP. Other lines like P&O and Nedlloyd have also recently shifted their operations to JNP and CMB proposes to follow them.

According to Mumbai Port Trust, the limited draft available in docks, access channels and the restrictions imposed by the present Lock system in Indira Dock impedes the entry of modern deeper drafted vessels. The growth of the city around the port has left no space for further expansion of dock facilities.

Availability ofequipment and flotilla is adversely affected due to poor maintenance and restrictive practices. Consequently breakdowns are frequent and time taken for repairs is high and some of the old equipment also need to be replaced.