This contribution is yet another feather in the cap of India, which is fast emerging as a global economic super power. As you all are aware, the port sector in general and container terminal segment in particular has been playing a pivotal role in scripting the country's forward march on the global front. JNPT has been a significant contributor to this and, therefore, needs particular mention in this regard.

It's a dual achievement for the port and the credit for this achievement goes undoubtedly to eminent Chairman, Deputy Chairperson, port officials and the terminal managers and their teams who have worked relentlessly and tirelessly to make JNPT a world-class port in India. It would not have been possible for the port to create such a huge impact without the contribution of such a distinguished, dedicated and committed team.

From being a medium-sized gateway port in the early 90's to becoming the largest port in South Asia, JNPT has come a long way and has made the country extremely proud. They have been excelling on several fronts despite infrastructure and political challenges. JNPT's untiring efforts have helped them consolidate and strengthen their leadership position not only in India but on the global front as well. They have been ranked 24th among the Top 30 container ports globally in 2007, moving up from the 28th position it enjoyed in the previous year.

Safmarine has been associated with the port since its inception. It has been amongst the first lines to deploy a weekly service from the port. Over the period, the learning for both the line and the port has been immense from each other's experiences. Volumes have improved and so has the service levels. For Safmarine, being a customer- focused company, when it comes to choosing facilities that will benefit customers; nothing but the best will do. JNPT has continued to serve our customers effectively and diligently. Safmarine and JNPT have grown hand-in-hand in this mutually beneficial arrangement.

It takes a lot of hard work and commitment to achieve dual milestones in the same financial year. Out of the 4 million TEUs crossed by JNPT, NSICT has contributed 1.51 million TEUs and GTICT 1.29 million TEUs. With the commencement and the construction of the 4th terminal, I am confident that JNPT would continue to be the leader and further improve its position globally. By taking necessary initiatives in road and rail connectivity and introducing state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities, I am confident that JNPT will create benchmarks in port and container handling.

In view of the current globalisation scenario, container traffic in India is all set for a big stride. Ports, which manage over 95 per cent of the India's international trade, continue to play an immense role in the country's export import (ex-im) trade.

This is the decade of containerisation and the last couple of years have already seen the deployment of several mega-containerships by many lines and many more are in the pipeline. The fast changing market dynamics reminds us that JNPT must be fully geared up to brace the challenges of the future.

The success of JNPT can be dedicated to its great vision of privatisation. At a time when resources were scarce and there was an imperative need for modernisation, JNPT encouraged private investment, which led on to the establishment of NSICT and more recently GTI terminals. Both these private terminals have been strategic partners of JNPT with high levels of experience in marketing and operation of modern ports. They have brought in new set of values, operational technology and practices that have proven to be a catalyst to fast growth and high productivity levels.

JNPT's growth rate has been substantial, but it faces the challenge of having a draught of only 12.5 m. In the age where ships are getting bigger and bigger, a higher draught will be of great importance to avail economies of scale.

Efficiency and sophistication, the hallmarks of a state-of-the-art system, are key to achieving customer satisfaction. And this quality is in ample evidence at JNPT, in the whole gamut of functions and activities that it performs; pursuing ever higher standards, challenging itself to set new records, year after year.

It is a matter of immense satisfaction that, through the unflinching efforts and dedication of Team JNPT, under the able guidance of its enlightened leadership, the Port has come to occupy a prominent place on the maritime map. And, naturally, for all of us who belong to the Indian maritime community, this is a matter of considerable pride.

With foresight, planning and commitment, the constraints and challenges that the Port faces are being steadfastly addressed for finding the optimum solutions, be it in infrastructure, equipment and technology, systems, etc.

The various initiatives of the government to develop ports and policy measures conducive to their growth, including private sector participation, would yield rich dividends enabling JNP as well as other Indian ports to play their rightful role in the country's march towards sustained and rapid economic growth.

The SCI, on its part, continues its support to JN Port, from being the first shipping line to call at JNP right up to the present times, as the Port sets itself increasingly challenging targets for the future, in throughput, in efficiency, in customer service, making its mark on the global stage.

This year on its 19th Anniversary on May 26, 2008, JNP celebrates an unimaginable and extraordinary landmark of crossing four million TEUs. This is a milestone in the history of JNPT because at this stage we can confidently claim a day will come when JN Port will cross the 10-million TEU mark in the near future. Furthermore, JNP is in the process of developing its 4th container terminal, which is of 2000 metres quay length and will come up in two phases in the next 5 to 6 years, thereby making JNP India's number one container port.

The arrangement of public-private partnership (PPP) is a successful concept for JNPT. It has created a healthy competition, which has proved to be beneficial in achieving growth in the past and shall continue in the future too. The achievement of crossing four million TEUs is remarkable. It is a fruit for all concerned port authorities. The 23 per cent growth in cargo handling makes JNP the highest amongst all Major Ports in India. It is also ranked as 24th in the list of top most container ports of the world.

In future, JN Port has to face tough competition with inter port and intra port in India and abroad. In India, many private ports are developing like in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The volume handled by non-major ports is increasing year after year. Some private ports like Reliance Port Ltd. and Dighi Port will come up neighbouring JN Port. In spite of the tough competition, JNP will reach and stay at the top. JN Port has to change with time and modernize its container handling equipments as per the industry requirements. At present, the RMQCs are aging which needs to be replaced and a sufficient number of RMQCs, RMGCs, RTGCs and other container handling equipments are required in order to face the competition in future and increase crane productivity, which is an important parameter.

Another aspect, which needs to be attended to, is the depth of the channel of the Port. The existing depth of 12 metres is not sufficient to handle vessels more than 3000 TEUs. All over the world, the trend is towards big sized vessels up to 8000 TEUs. Therefore, a depth of 2 to 4 metres should be increased in the near future. If the Ministry clears the project of deepening and widening of harbour channel and the Port buys sufficient number of equipments and increases the depth of channel in order to accommodate big vessels, the workers and officers of the JNPT can accept the challenge to compete with other ports.

JNP has got sufficient expertise, experience and money; it is capable of developing at least another terminal on its own. Currently, JNPT's share is around 1/3, which will reduce to 1/6 after the commencement of 4th container terminal, which will tilt the scales in favour of private terminals, which may create a monopoly for private players. The main aim of PPP is to give weightage to both, though the trend is going in the direction of private monopoly, which is risky in future.

In spite of various difficulties and hurdles, JNP's growth will continue. India's economy is growing and its share in world trade is increasing which will help the Port to attract more and more traffic, especially in containers. I am associated with this port from its inception date and as a Labour Trustee since 1999. I am confident that the growth of JNPT will increase year after year and it will be a port of bright future.

Before implementation of this project, villagers of this area, who lived in small villages, were depended on farming and fishing for their livelihood. Around 2584 hectares of land were acquired by the government of Maharashtra for the port project. Fearing threat to their livelihood, villagers protested on this acquisition, and as a result of this agitation five people sacrificed their lives and stood as martyrs in the history of Nhava Sheva. However, despite this protest, the government succeeded in acquiring this land.

During the project stage, villagers suffered a lot as their main source of income was lost. Despite this loss, they showed their magnanimity and extended their support to the project as a mark of love to the nation.

But, after implementation of the project, port authorities started recruitment at various stages and 904 Project affected persons (PAPs) got employment in JN Port and, in addition, 40 per cent PAPs were given employment in various private sectors viz., NSICT, GTI, CFSs, CY, shipping lines, CHAs, etc. However, even to reach at this stage it was not an easy task.

JNPT is completing 19 years of its inception on May 26, 2008. In these 19 years, JN Port has achieved a remarkable position in the international trade to a glorious course of success and achievements, breaking all records and creating new benchmarks, with limited manpower.

It is not out of place to mention here that with intellectual and proper administration of hierarchy and devotion of staff and officials of JN Port, the story of success is speedily reaching to a prestigious stage and may even achieve a remarkable target with a long-term goal.

Having achieved this success, we take pleasure in congratulating the Chairman and Deputy Chairperson, the mentors of the Port, who, in turn, have been taking utmost care and looking personally to the day-to-day operations and administration of the Port. We are proud to say that all the personnel carry out their work with best efforts and satisfaction under the leadership of the Chairman and Deputy Chairperson and making all the efforts to complete the commitment given to the Ministry.

This Union was formed and registered as Trade Union in June 2006. In the recent election of employees for representing in the Port Trust Board, held in April 2007, JNP Kamgar Ekta Union has achieved remarkable victory and stood first after getting 42 per cent votes of total strength of employees. This victory was achieved against the experienced seniors. The employees welcomed this change.

Our first motto is "work hard". In line with this motto, we are proud to say that not a single man-hour was lost during this year. Whenever grievances arise, we have tried to resolve the same by means of amicable discussion and most of the issues were deliberated at ground level and under the guidance of the Chairman and Deputy Chairperson. As a result of this, four to five major long pending issues were resolved without loss of time. It is to be categorically mentioned here that because of the positive approach of the Chairman and Deputy Chairperson towards the welfare of the employees, the issue of recruitment on compensatory grounds has been amicably resolved and 9 persons (heirs of deceased employees) were recruited in JN Port within this span of year. Due to the Union's effort the Canteen coupons subsidy has also been increased upto Rs.66/- per day, which was earlier only Rs.16/- per day per employee. In 1996, 15 PAPs were recruited in the scale of Assistant Technician Gr.II cadre, though they are having requisite qualification to work as Assistant Technicians. They tried through various levels for years but could not succeed and then existing Unions informed them that this matter would be resolved only at the Ministry level. However, recently they approached us and within a month they have been appointed as Assistant Technicians, and the matter has been resolved with Administration Department under the guidelines of Chairman and the Deputy Chairperson. In short, both the Chairman and the Deputy Chairperson have shown keen interest in resolving the employee-related issues.

Considering the current globalisation scenario and to compete with the private terminals, we are insisting for state-of-art facilities, modernisation in container handling equipments, well manned flotilla and to develop the infrastructure to cater to the need of increased traffic and to cope with the vision of government about containerisation in Indian trade. To carry out such heavy tasks, sufficient manpower is required. Considering the ratio of container handling equipment vis-à-vis manpower, we have requested the management as well as the government to recruit sufficient personnel, which will, in turn, be beneficial to the Port as well as to the trade also.

Our generous demand is to motivate every employee and to keep close and beneficial association between the organisation and officials for the future growth of the Port and the development of the country's economy as a whole.

We appeal to the shipping fraternity for boosting the morals of the Port officials/staff, for their records in container handling, which may be focused in Indian shipping industry and all concerned may be suitably rewarded with commendation certificate issued once in a year.

Latitude-18056’43" North and Longitude-72056’24" East along the eastern shore of Mumbai Harbour of Elephanta Island.

CHANNEL AND BERTHS

• Common Harbour channel for JN Port and Mumbai Port, up to No.4 berth of Jawahar Dweep Oil Terminal.

• Designed Channel depth is 11 metres (Below chart datum).

• Channel width 350 metres at entry point : 460 metres off the berths.

• Depth off berths : 13.5 metres (below chart datum)

• Anchorage berth of 600 metres diameter.

• 2,000 Mtrs of quay length for Container Berth

• 445 Mtrs of quay length for Feeder Container/Cement/Project Cargo Ships

• Twin Berths Liquid Cargo Jetty

i) Mean sea level is 2.51 metres above chart datum.

ii) Mean Spring Tidal Range in the Harbour is 3.7 metres.

iii) Port handles vessels having draught up to 12.50 metres.

• Round-the-clock pilotage

• Port operation center manned round-the-clock.

• A common Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) for JNP and Mumbai Port.

• Pilot Launches - 4 Nos.

• Tugs - 8 nos. (3 X 30 Tonnes, 1 X 45 Tonnes & 4 X 50 Tonnes Bollard pull.)

• Mooring Launches - 2 Nos.

• VIP Launches - 2 Nos.

• High Speed Harbour patrolling launch – 1 No.

• Llyods List of Award - Best Port Authority Award in the year, 2005.

• Computerised operations with single window operations system.

• Friendly industrial relations.

• Regular review of port operations with port customers.

• `Fresh water provided alongside berths, bunkering by barge.

• 1,145 hectares of land exclusively reserved for greenery and mangroves.

• Out of 2,584 hectares of land, about 600 hectares is covered by mangroves, about 390 hectares is developed as green area and planning to develop Nature Park / Eco Park in about 160 hectares of land.

• Greenest Port of India - Recipient of ‘Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award’ in year 1996. 

JNPCT

• 680 metres linear quay length

• Rail Mounted Quay Cranes (RMQCs) : 8 Nos. (6 Nos. Panamax + 2 Nos. Super Post-Panamax)

• Rubber-Tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGCs) : 18 Nos.

• Rail Mounted Gantry Cranes (RMGCs) : 5 Nos.

• Backup Area : 58 hectares

• Reach Stackers : 10 Nos. (2 Nos. owned by Port, 8 Nos. on hire)

• Tractor-Trailers : 128 Nos. (20 Nos. owned by Port, 108 Nos. on hire)

• Forklifts : 9 Nos. (JNPCT 3, A.G.: 5 (for CT 3, Maint-1 & W/S 1), Main Stores :1

• Reefer Slots : 320 Nos.

• Railway siding for ICD : Four Tracks

• Terminal Capacity : 1.1 million TEUs per annum

• 600 metres linear quay length

• Rail Mounted Quay Cranes (RMQCs) : 8 Nos. (4 Nos. Post-Panamax + 4 Nos. Super Post-Panamax)

• Rubber-Tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGCs) : 29 Nos.

• Rail Mounted Gantry Cranes (RMGCs) : 3 Nos.

• Backup Area : 28 hectares

• Tractor-Trailers : 150 Nos. (On Hire)

• Reefer Slots : 772 Nos.

• Railway siding for ICD : Two Tracks

• Terminal Capacity : 1.2 million TEUs per annum

Trail operation commenced in March 2006, fully operational by October-2006

• 712 metres linear quay length

• Rail Mounted Quay Cranes (RMQCs) : 8 Nos. Super Post-Panamax

• Rubber-Tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGCs) : 29 Nos

• Rail Mounted Gantry Cranes (RMGCs) : 3 Nos.

• Backup Area : 54 hectares

• Reach Stackers and Empty Handler : 4 Nos.

• Tractor-Trailers : 90 Nos. on hire

• Forklifts : 4 Nos.

• Reefer Slots : 504 Nos.

• Railway siding for ICD : Three Tracks

• Terminal Capacity : 1.3 million TEUs per annum

There are 20 CFSs operating in and around JN Port, handling adequate warehousing capacities for stuffing and destuffing of containerized cargo and 13 CFSs proposed are yet to commence operation.

1 JNP CFS
2 CWC - D' Node
3 Maersk CFS
4 Punjab Conware CFS
5 Gateway Distriparks
6 Balmer Lawrie
7 Transindia Logistic Parks - ALL Cargo CFS
8 ULA
9 Sea Bird Marine Services
10 CONCOR DRT
11 CWC Kalamboli
12 CWC Distripark
13 MSWC
14 Continental Warehousing Corpn. (CWC-NSL)
15 JWC Logistic Park (ICD)
16 Maersk Annex CFS
16 Maersk CFS - D' Node
17 Preeti Logitics
18 Cwc Impex
19 Forbes-Gokak CFS
20 CWC CFS Logistic Park (Hind Terminals Ltd.)

1 Ameya CFS
2 SOL Logistics - CFS
3 M/s. PNP Maritime CFS
4 M/s. Transindia Cargo Systems Pvt. Ltd.
5 M/s. Apollo International CFS
6 M/s. Nhava Sheva Logistics Pvt. Ltd.
7 M/s. Dadajee Dhackjee Logistics Pvt. Ltd.
8 M/s. Universal Container Freight Station
9 M/s. Ramtech Infraservices Pvt. Ltd
10 M/s. Coralline Container Services Pvt Ltd.
11 M/s. GEM Distriparks & Logistics Ltd.
12 M/s. Park City Computech Pvt. Ltd.
13 M/s. May Flower Terminal Pvt. Ltd.
14 M/s. Arshhriya Technilogies Internl. Ltd.
15 M/s. Nhava Sheva CFS & Agri. Park Ltd.
16 M/s. Seahorse Distribution & Freight Services (Shirdon)
17 M/s. Seahorse Distribution & Freight Services (Bhom)
18 M/s. Ashte Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai

The dominant tide in the Mumbai Harbour is the semi-diurnal tide with a period of 12 hours and 40 minutes. The following are the particulars of tidal levels related to Chart Datum.