Mumbai: Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), one of the premier container handling ports, recorded 433,533 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in July this year, a growth of 21.15 per cent as compared to344316 TEUs during the last corresponding year. The container traffic handled at JNPT during the first four months of FY 2021-22 was 1,797,838 TEUs, which is 50.80 per cent higher than the container traffic of 1,192,165 TEUs over the same period of last year.
In terms of rail operations, JNPT handled 77,662 TEUS of ICD traffic from 503 rakes in July 2021 and the rail-coefficient was 17.91 per cent. To enhance the model shift from road to rail, JNPT is undertaking a host of initiatives like the commencement of rail service between JNPT and Balli in South Goa on Konkan Railway, and other initiatives like ITRHO has helped to maximize train placement, track productivity, efficiency, cost-effective handling, reduce dwell time of import ICD boxes, connecting export ICD boxes to respective terminals in time and also increase rail quotient at JNPT.
JNPT Chairman Sanjay Sethi said that along with stakeholders, the Port Trust continues to play an important part of the supply chain. It has also commenced trial operations at the newly constructed Coastal Berth, which will provide an impetus for coastal cargo movement and provide better infrastructure for coastal shipping and decongest rail and road networks, ensuring cost-competitive and effective multi-modal transportation solutions. He said that a letter of intent has also been handed over to successful bidders of nine plots in JNPT SEZ to boost port-led industrialization.
He added that as a socially conscious organization committed to stakeholders, employees and local community, the JNPT hospital has administered over 10,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine jabs. The immunization drive is being conducted not only for the JNPT staff but also for facilitating the local communities living in and around the port area.
It is worth noting that the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Navi Mumbai is one of the premier container handling ports in India. Commissioned on May 26, 1989, in less than three decades of its operations, JNPT has transformed from a bulk-cargo terminal to become the premier container port in the country.
Currently JNPT operates five container terminals: Jawaharlal Nehru Port Container Terminal (JNPCT), Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), Gateway Terminals India Pvt Ltd (GTIPL), Nhava Sheva International Gateway Terminal (NSIGT) and the newly commissioned Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals Private Limited (BMCTPL).