The Cochin Port Labour Union (CITU) on Tuesday demanded that the Vallarpadam licence agreement should be re-examined.
Coming down heavily on the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) and DP World, the union demanded that the CPT should levy compensation from DP World, which operates the ICTT (International Container Transshipment Terminal), for not following terms of the licence agreement. The TU leaders demanded that the CPT should stop providing concession in vessel-related charges for ships calling at ICTT.
“As per the licence agreement, transshipment operations should have begun long back. However they have failed to follow this condition for the past couple of years. Hence compensation amount should be levied from them,” said union president M M Lawrence and general secretary B Hamsa at a press conference here.
They said expenditure for providing security by CRPF personnel should also be levied from the licensee.
Union vice-president K V A Iyer said the Port Trust had agreed to the trade unions’ demand that the licensee should not have monopoly in handling containers at Rajiv Gandhi Terminal. However this agreement has also been violated, he said.
The trade union leaders said though they had demanded details of the licence agreement, the port refused to do so terming those “confidential”.