Ports in a storm

MUMBAI: Lone scanner
Nhava Sheva has India’s only container-scanning machine. But even this imported machine with a price tag of over Rs 50 crore, may not help the Customs. It can distinguish cargo items by their density but can’t tell apart different metals. So, a pipe-like shape may pass the scanner without anyone knowing that it is, in fact, a shell. Now that the DGFT has specified that unshredded and non-compacted metallic waste will be allowed into the country only through major ports and the ICD Tughlakabad and that all unshredded cargo will be subject to 100 per cent physical examination, it means Nhava Sheva’s congestion problems just got bigger. At present, one examination shed of customs has to clear about 200 containers in a day.

KANDLA: Unclear days
About 400 daily labourers work among the scrap every day. Kandla has the country’s biggest scrap handling company: A. V. Joshi & company. With the new directive, business at Kandla will go up—5,000 containers daily instead of 1,000. Kandla has handled 3.47 lakh tonne in bulk and 6,5000 tonne in containers this year alone. But unhappy with the directive making 100 per cent inspection of unshredded cargo mandatory, the Kandla Commissionerate has now refused to clear any scrap cargo saying it has no expertise to detect explosives.

KOLKATA: Scrap screen
‘‘We follow a uniform procedure throughout India and the same methods are followed here too,’’ says a reticent additional commissioner customs at the Kolkata Port S V Singh. A high level meeting on Monday will discuss bringing in more experts to make the screening foolproof.

CHENNAI: Livewire
In April this year 4,000 pieces of live bombs and missiles arrived in Chennai from Guinea. The Customs officials cleared the 300 tonnes of arsenal, and the importer, Shri Mahalakhsmi scrap merchant, quietly buried them at a scrapyard in Tiruvotriyur. Just one of the ‘‘weaker arsenal’’ exploded, sending the police into a panic. Five months later, the police feels there are still chances of such deadly iron scrap getting past the Customs. With 30,000 tonne of scrap coming into Chennai every week, the logistics clearly beat the ill-equipped Customs and the Chennai police.