How successful has China been in linking the ports with the hinterland?
Every stool has four legs. In China, linkage to ports is the fourth leg. A port per se may be the most efficient in the world in terms of number of boxes moved per hour but productivity is effectively zero if access in and out of the port is restricted. What is happening in Chennai today? We are still sitting on the construction of the Chennai-Manali link road, which is all of some 30-35 km, for last four years. Whereas in one-and-a-half year’s time, they are building the road between Shanghai and Ningbo over the sea, which will cut down the traffic time to 30 minutes from about four hours today. From a shipping line’s point of view, how do the Chinese ports compare with those in India or elsewhere? There are two areas of comfort for the shipping lines. First, the efficiency that a port will deliver to the vessel. All these ports in China now are handling vessels carrying 4,000-5,000 TEUs. And they are able to turn them around in 32-34 hours. Second, the cost as compared to another por
