KOCHI: The Cochin Port Staff Association (CPSA), one of the major trade unions at the Cochin Port, alleged that the DP World operator of the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), deceived the Cochin Port Trust by over projecting the cargo handling and thereby, offering 33.3 per cent revenue share.The union leaders have submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister of Shipping G K Vasan, demanding a review of the unilateral clauses in the license agreement for the Vallarpadam ICTT. The union leaders pointed out that the port authorities should not have conceded to the clause of shouldering the expenditure for dredging, in return to a revenue share of 33.3 per cent of the total income.“This clause has become nonobligatory on the part of the port. For instance, the revenue share received form DP World upto October 2011 is Rs 22.5 crore and if the productivity remains steady for rest of the financial year, the total revenue share for the financial year would be less than Rs 35 crore. While, the expenditure towards maintenance dredging for the current year would be Rs 80 crore to 100 crore. For the next year, this expenditure would be Rs 160 crore,” said Mohammed Haneefa, CPSA president, who is also a trustee of the Cochin Port Trust.The projection of cargo handling as per the Licence Agreement for the year 2011-12 was 7.5 lakh containers. However, till October 2011 only 2,15,000 containers have been handled. In 2005, when the Rajeev Gandhi Container Terminal was handed over to the DP World, the number containers handled was 1,65,000 and the profit was Rs 22 crore, the memorandum said. Further, the memorandum states that the DP World overburdened the port by resending 310 employees who were on a deputation with DP World. “As per the agreement, the DP World could operate the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal for a maximum period of 8.5 years. In case they wished for an extension of two years, they could do it after the commissioning of the ICTT. However, after the completion of a single berth at Vallarpadam, the DP World had transferred the operations of RGCT to the ICTT at Vallarpadam. With this 310 employees of Cochin Port became jobless and returned to the port. The DP World benefitted from this as it saved the pay and allowances meant for these employees. The amounts is approximately Rs 13 crore per annum. Already, the port is overburdened with the payment of their salary. No clause in the License Agreement does permit DP World to transfer the operations prematurely before the completion of the ICTT work at Vallarpadam, it said.
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