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Journalism of Courage
BHUJ, Oct 20: New Kandla Port Trust Chairman A K Jyoti, who took over last weekend on deputation from the State Government where he last worked as Industries and Mines Secretary, has said that upgradation of port facilities and further improvement in service would be his top priority at Kandla, the number one traffic handler in the country for the past two years. This, he said, was important as Kandla was facing competition from new state-of-the-art ports coming up in the State.
8220;We have to retain existing traffic as well as attract new ones and this can be done only if we have a competitive edge over the new ports in the region,8221; the 46-year old IAS officer from the 1975 batch pointed out. Jyoti had earlier served as Collector of Surendranagar, Panchmahals and Kheda districts as well as Higher Education Commissioner and Secretary in Revenue, Water Supply.
To a query, the new chief executive of KPT said the Gujarat-Adani port in Kutch and other nine minor ports being developed on the State coast on BOT basis as per the new port policy of the State were in fact alternative ports available to port users to serve ever growing traffic in the common hinterland in north-west India. 8220;If we do not improve ourselves technologically and provide highly personalised port services to our port users, we will naturally be losing our traffic to these better ports,8221; he said, adding that at present he was studying all aspects of this issue.
