he fourth must-have factor suggested by consultants to make the Enayam Port a success is convincing a major shipping line to become an anchor liner investor and re-route its traffic. The top three liners by volume in the globe are MAERSK, MSC and CMA-CGM. Since MAERSK has a minority stake in the Colombo port, it can be safely ruled out. The other two can be explored as Enayam’s anchor client.
To sweeten the deal, we could offer a long-term partnership involving berths dedicated to a specific alliance or carrier, or equity for volume structures in which a carrier’s stake in a terminal is tied. Let us look at some of the carrier-terminal ties: the COSCOCS has acquired 35 per cent stake in Hutchinson’s Euromax terminal at Rotterdam and created a joint venture with the PSA in Singapore for development of new berths; the CMA CGM has 30-year concession for container terminal in Kingston, Jamaica, and has formed a joint venture with the PSA for operation and use of four berths in Singapore; Evergreen owns Colon Container Terminal in Panama; and the MSC is reported to have equity or equity option in Freeport Container Port in the Bahamas.
The last factor is to levy competitive port charges than Colombo on transshipment containers for at least five years to incentivise the container lines to shift operations and reconfigure the route. Rough estimates suggest that Enayam requires to offer at least 15 per cent lower cost than Colombo for the initial five years to attract and sustain cargo. This may be possible either with the financial support of the government towards basic infrastructure such as construction of breakwater and capital dredging or else as estimated by the consultants, a VGF of 20-30 per cent or equity support under the Sagarmala scheme to achieve the target equity IRR of 12 per cent.
Strategic location
Strategically too, Enayam would be pivotal to the country’s ambitions vis-a-vis China. For, as much as 1.2 million TEUs of Indian containers are handled by the Colombo Port. The recently added Colombo International Container Terminal was built with the collaboration of China Merchant Holdings Company. Also, the Gwadar port in Pakistan, again developed by China, has the potential to become a full-fledged regional hub and a transshipment port in the future.
Besides, China is building ports in Hambantota (Sri Lanka), Chittagong (Bangladesh), etc. as part of its string of pearls theory.
In sum, the Indian Ocean is a nerve centre, as half of the world’s container traffic and one-third of its bulk cargo take that route.
Further, 80 per cent of world’s sea-borne oil transit (over 1 lakh ships annually) takes place in the Indian Ocean with the Strait of Malacca in the East accounting for 40 per cent. So, there is strategic importance in controlling the sea lanes in the Indian Ocean.
Maritime trade and security are perhaps among the major determinants that would allow a nation to establish its might. It’s a matter of record that throughout pax Britannica, the maritime centric strategy of the British Empire gave it unique capabilities and proved an invaluable instrument to British’s foreign policy. Coming back to Enayam, it can be developed as a strategic choke point like the Cape of Good Hope by virtue of its location in the critical trade route, especially when the lease treaty between the UK and the US in respect of Diego Garcia will expire in December 2016.
Equipping fishermen
Let us now shift our focus to the livelihood question of fishermen. Kanniyakumari district has a 71.5-km-long coastal line stretching to 11.5 km in the east and 60 km in the west.
The district possesses 47 marine fishing villages with a total fishing population of about 1.57 lakh people and an average family size of about 3.89 persons (GoI, 2010). Of them, about 45,000 are actively involved in fishing. The district has about 935 catamarans, 86 vallams and 156 mechanised boats registered in the east coast and 5,462 catamarans, 2,509 vallams and 1,172 mechanised boats registered in the west coast. The marine fish production of the district stood at 52,378 tonnes for the year 2014-15 (Kanyakumari District Statistical Hand Book 2015). A majority of the catches are marketed locally and through merchants.
People here venture out for fishing according to the variation in the fishing season. Different forms of fishing like finfish and shellfish fishing are done along this coast.
For example, a group of fishermen undertakes skin diving for mussel fishing and lobster collection in the rocky coastal areas during October to April. Traditional catamarans, canoe and fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) boats are widely used for fishing.
A numerically small segment of Kanniyakumari fishermen also seem to be migrants in nature. They have been known to fish in international territories and reach the nearest harbour in other states to sell their catch. In the process, they often face problems from local fishermen in those states.
A majority of mechanised fishing boats here are navigated by untrained local fishermen, and the lack of skill to handle fish finding navigational and communication equipment often leads to work inefficiency. Besides, most fishing boats are still using established fishing techniques, like shore seining, trawling and gill netting.
Only a limited number of vessels are operating purse seine and long line fishing gear. Advanced fishing operations like resource specific trawling, monofilament long lining and squid jigging needs to be popularised. One of the easy and sustainable approaches in handling the non-environment use of shore-seine, followed by many in the Enayam area, could be the deployment of artificial reefs, which can act as marine protected areas. In order to ensure efficiency of fishing operations and sustainable development of marine fishers resources as part of the Sagarmala programme, the Ministry of Shipping has tied up with the Ministry of Rural Development,
National Institute of Fisheries Post Harvest Technology and Training (NIFPHATT) and Central Institute of Fisheries Nautical and Engineering Training (CIFNET) for coastal skill development projects of fishermen under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya-Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) for capacity building and skill upgrading in hygienic fish handling and high end products development.
Further, the ministry along with the Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying & Fisheries (DADF) has undertaken the creation of several infrastructure facilities under the Blue Revolution Scheme announced in June 2016, with an annual assistance of up to `100 crore.
This includes construction of a fishing harbour in Poompuhar in Nagapattinam district and expansion of existing facilities in Chinna-Muttam in Kanniyakumari. In addition, potential areas such as use of post-harvest technology, modern fish marketing yard etc. are also under consideration as part of the Sagarmala initiatives.
The State government has put in place a number of schemes like compensation for restricted fishing and schemes for procurement of deep-sea tuna liners. Synergising the efforts of the Central sector scheme on Blue Revolution, the Neel Kranti Mission being implemented by the DADF and the State governments in this direction should ensure sustainable development.
(The author is Director (Finance), Ministry of Shipping.Views expressed are personal)