Bauxite movement from the port by road has been totally stopped from 15 December while coal evacuation is partially hit, as residents protest truck movement through Vasco City.
Evacuation of bauxite and coal cargo by road from Union government owned Mormugao Port has ground to a halt since 15 December as residents oppose the movement of these commodities by trucks through Vasco city citing pollution concerns, multiple sources said.
“Some 1,00,000 tonnes of bauxite cargo belonging to customers such as Hindalco Industries Ltd and UltraTech Cement Ltd (both owned by the Aditya Birla Group) are lying inside the port. The agitating residents are not allowing any material to move by road through the two export-import gates of Mormugao port. About 30,000-40,000 tonnes of cargo were expected to be moved out of the port by road in the last three days. The port will soon face a logjam,” a port official told ET Infra.
“It’s strange that some 10-15 people have managed to stop cargo evacuation from the port by road completely for the last three days. The State government machinery is not doing anything to resolve the situation which is a law-and-order issue,” he said, asking not to be named.
Bauxite cargo arriving at the port on big ships are moved to the customers premises by road only. About 10-20 percent of the coal shipped through the port is evacuated by road and the rest by rail, which has not been affected by the agitation.
With rising focus on cruise ship movements, the port authorities decided that bauxite and coal movements through Gate No 1, which is closer to the cruise terminal at the port, will be stopped and such cargo will be fully diverted through Gate No 9 when a cruise vessel is docked at the port.
Evacuation of cargo through Gate No 9 by trucks involves travelling a 1.5 km stretch inside Vasco city to connect to the nearest highway, triggering the protest from residents.
Cargo laden trucks don’t have to travel through Vasco city while using Gate No 1 due to a bypass road that helps connect to the highway directly.
Even when cruise ships are not berthed at the port, trailer drivers are reluctant to evacuate the cargo through Gate No 1 due to fear of being attacked by the agitating residents, an official with a ship agency in Vasco, where the port is located, said.
Tourists who arrived on a cruise ship last week were not allowed to board taxis to go to the city as their vehicles were blocked by the protestors. “They had to go back to the cruise ship,” the official said.
Cargo ships operations at the port have not been affected by the protests so far. “But, when cargo is not allowed to move out of the port, evacuation will be hit. Then, vessel operations will also face problems,” the vessel agent said.
Blaming the State government authorities for not taking any action to settle the law-and-order issue, the ship agent said that the protest is not only hurting Mormugao port but is also a “loss to the nation”.
“Delays in evacuating the cargo from the port will raise the logistics costs for port users and cargo owners,” the ship agent said.
Mormugao port, one of the 12 owned by the Union government, has been struggling for a decade after the Supreme Court banned export of iron ore from Goa – the port’s main commodity – in 2012.
Between April and November this fiscal, the cargo handled at the port declined 11.98 percent to 10.539 million tonnes (mt) from 11.974 mt a year earlier.
Goa is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is also in power at the Centre. Besides, Shripad Yesso Naik, a BJP lawmaker representing the North Goa constituency in Parliament, is a Minister of State in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, which oversees the Mormugao Port Authority.
“Yet the problem has not been solved. If the agitation continues, ships will be forced to divert to other ports,” the ship agent added.
