HALDIA, SEPT 23: The centre is studying aproposal for introducing VRS and bringing down retirement age of employees in all major ports to reduce manpower by 40 per cent, according to Secretary in the Ministry of Surface transport, R Vasudevan.Except for some modernised ports, manpower in most major ports were on the higher side hampering their competitiveness, he told a press conference here after inaugurating a multi-purpose jetty at the Haldia Dock Complex.“I reckon that manpower in the major ports has to be reduced by 40 per cent,’’ he said, adding that a proposal to introduce Voluntary Retirement Scheme and bringing down retirement age as steps to this end was being studied.Port sources said that the country’s major ports had acombined strength of 1.20 lakh workers and together handled 272 million tonne of cargo annually. The world’s largest port at Rotterdam handled 305 million tonne annually with 7,000 workers, while the ports in UK together handled 500 million tonne with 25,000 workers.Stating that he had asked the Calcutta Port Trust to commercially utilise its 3,326 acre of land under the Calcutta Dock System, Vasudevan said the CPT chairman has been asked to sell 54 acre of untenanted land. A study was on to ascertain how much of the 1,316 acre of land could be commercially utilised.
