Railways to ease cargo clearing at Cochin Port

KOCHI: It seems apprehension of the port users in clearing cargo via rail from Willingdon Island is coming to an end. The Railway authorities have announced that they will  place wagons with adequate notice to the traders who use the port, in the Willingdon Island. The decision was taken at a meeting of  senior Railway officials, State Labour Commissioner, additional secretary (Transport), city police commissioner,  Revenue District Officer, Cochin Port Trust chairman, senior officers of the departments concerned and the stakeholders, on Saturday. The meeting was convened to take steps to streamline cargo movement via rail.The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), who was also present at the meeting, has directed the railway officials to inform the traders that if the wagons could not be placed then the workers from the Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board (KHWWB) will not be indented needlessly. The DRM further promised to try to take steps to place the rakes only in the mornings.As part of the effort to curb ‘nokkukooli,’ Cochin Port Trust officials would countersign the indent placed by the port users on the KHWWB so that users would not be under pressure to indent for more than the required number of labour from the KHWWB. The KHWWB authorities said that they will review the present pool system of workers and rearrange  the existing members of the scheme in the port area as per the requirement. In view of the shortage of workers for work like bagging, the Cochin Port Trust has decided to introduce automated bagging from last week of this month. The daily output of the automated system is around 2,400 tonnes.“This would speed up the evacuation of cargo such as fertilizers from Cochin Port, thus, attracting ship arrivals and increased traffic through the Railways,” port authorities said.The labour commissioner said that the complaints of ‘nokkukooli’ should be filed immediately with the police.