From the first week of this month, the Mumbai Port Trust has started functioning 24 hours a day, for the first time in its 145-year history. The move was pushed through as a matter of the port’s survival after talks between the management and employees’ unions succeeded. Until January, the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) was the only port in the country where employees worked 22 hours daily and as there was no activity between 6 am and 8 am, a long line of trucks would form outside its gates. With Mumbai losing out on cargo traffic to non-major and private ports, the two major employees’ unions decided that steps needed to be taken to stave off competition. “We felt that this is the time to change. A symbolic message will go out that Mumbai Port is in line with other ports,” said Kersi Parekh, the MbPT trustee and working president, Transport and Dock Workers’ Union. He added that vessels avoid Mumbai Port due to high turnaround time. “If we want to compete, we have to do this,” he said. Sudhakar Apraj, the General Secretary of the MbPT Dock and General Employees’ Union, said companies do not want to bring ships to the port since they know that it did not work round-the-clock. “Earlier, we had monopoly as there were no other ports in the area. We were getting cargo from all corners and were overburdened. But now, other ports have taken away our business and the central government’s decision to develop four other ports means that more cargo will be diverted there,” he said. The port’s 7,000-odd active employees needed some convincing, along with assurances that facilities for accommodation, food and toilets would be taken care of in the night shift. Employees at the port work in three shifts, with the night shifts that were only six hours long until earlier this month. “It was a difficult task to convince the workers to move to 24 hours. But we did this as it was about the survival of the port and the workers,” said Parekh. Aparj said the workers had been assured of overtime pay. “There is no longer a traffic jam outside the gates to the docks. The results of the move will come in due course of time,” he said. At the foundation stone laying ceremony of a new international cruise terminal on Thursday, MbPT Chairman Sanjay Bhatia had hailed the move as a major step in the functioning of the port. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was also present at the ceremony, said the decision taken by the unions gave a direct indication to the business community that the port means business.
