Cochin port union request abandoning concessions to terminal operators

Cochin Port Joint Trade Union Forum has urged the government to abandon a proposal to allow concession in royalty / revenue share payable by private firms — both existing and new ones — handling transshipment and coastal containers at facilities in Centre owned major ports including the terminal run by Dubai’s DP World at Cochin Port Authority.
Terming the move as “shocking”, the Joint Trade Union Forum, cutting cross party lines, said it sought “to grant undue benefits to DP World which runs the international container transshipment terminal at Vallarpadam in Cochin Port”. They said the “facts were entirely different” to the arguments put forward by the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways in considering the proposal from the point of view of the Vallarpadam container transhipment terminal.
“The terminal operator has miserably failed in utilising the facilities and infrastructure provided by spending ₹1,900 crore from public exchequer and spending annually a further ₹125 crore for maintenance dredging by Cochin Port Authority,” the Forum explained in a letter to the secretary, ministry of ports, shipping and waterways.