Far from letting that happen, the new decision is aimed at ensuring that the port survives. If finally approved, this will be single largest investment made in the last 100 years. In doing so, the government will aggravate the conditions which call for port facilities to be moved to a new site in the first place. Evacuation of cargo, which is possible only in the two hour window each day when suburban rail traffic stops, has increased the cost of transportation to a point where the competitiveness of the exporter has come under severe pressure. Despite there being a dedicated roadcorridor, evacuation has taken days on occasion. Besides, by causing environmental pollution, the cargo has further choked an already suffocating city. The new facility will add pressure to a system which has been on the brink of collapse for some years now.

Had labour productivity at the port been higher, this problem would have been even more acute. (It has in fact given labour the excuse not to accept higher norms) Mumbai is one of those ports that has the lowest labour productivity, and a union stubbornly opposed to new manning scales. In such a scenario can the port authorities afford a Rs 3,000 crore investment to be run by fifty-year old productivity norms? Closing down a port is one of those hard political decisions. And as long as ships come calling, there may be no need to do it. But there is no need to add to the existing facilities, when there is a strong case to close it down. As one business dies, another takes its place. A seafront to which the entire city has access creates a host of newbusiness opportunities for the , hospitality and leisure industry. Essentially, polluting industries-and a port is one, gives way to cleaner service industry-an inevitable transition that densely populated cities have to make. London is a classic example of this.

A large labour force and a militant union leadership, with powerful political backing is usually the reason why these decisions have been deferred. But ports all over the world have had the same problem. And yet the logistics of transportation and the need for competitive exports has forced governments to take this decision.