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Quick, clean, efficient, Krishnapatnam is part of India's leap forward

LIKE other purpose-built container facilities, Krishnapatnam port on India's east coast is far away from the congestion of big cities that supply chains avoid.

Thus, thoroughly modern Krishnapatnam Port Container Terminal (KPCT) exemplifies the great leap forward India is experiencing today as the nation's GDP growth gallops along at eight to 10 per cent a year.

Untroubled by unions, KPCT with its five quay cranes on two berths along a 650-metre quay and a 36-hectare yard is far away from the teeming millions of Chennai - just as New York's box handling is now done in New Jersey and London's has moved miles from town.

Today, the east coast of India KPCT can boast of a new four-lane road running 24 kilometres to the north-south National Highway 5 from Kolkata to Chennai, as well as a new 19-kilometre rail line linking up to Bangalore and Hyderabad and their India-wide connections.

East coast India tends to get a miss from the shipping press. But the big east-west transshipment centre at Colombo now gets 65 per cent of its transshipments from India with 75 per cent of that from the west coast because it was on the side closest to Europe.

But that matters less today with intra-Asia routes dominating the world's container trade by volume, and as India's growth on the east coast becomes more relevant because it faces the workshops of China and Southeast Asia.

Telling this to the world are Anil Yendluri, CEO of KPCT and fellow director Vinita Venkatesh, who through face-to-face meetings and gala hotel receptions and dinners not only to extol the virtues of their port, but to tell of India's enormous progress as well.

With 13.5 metres alongside, Krishnapatnam now handles 3,500-TEU ships today. Its trade balance is 3:1 in favour of exports. Of the 24,000 TEU throughput the port posted in November 2016, 7,500 TEU were empties.

Leading exports are rice, cement, granite, chillies, and tobacco, all of which are containerised. Imports include newsprint, machinery, auto parts and solar panels.

Said Ms Venkatesh: "Solar panels from China are starting in a big way. The next big commodity that we will be handling is scrap and pharma, the latter being able to access 400 reefer plugs. Add to that electric goods, electronic components and recently in a very big, big way, furniture and office equipment from south China.

That's because of an historic political development two years ago with the partition of Andhra Pradesh state into one coastal province of the same name and a new inland state of Telangana with its present day capital of Hyderabad.

For 10 years the two states will share Hyderabad as a joint capital, while a new Andhra Pradesh capital, Amaravati, is built from the ground up, 300 kilometres north of Krishnapatnam on the banks of the Krishna River. Amaravati's foundation stone was laid on October 22, 2015 by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Most of the new capital's imported building material from China will be handled through Krishnapatnam port, said its CEO, Mr Yendluri.

Apart from intra-Asia volumes, which now include cargo from Maersk's China-east coast India service, there is another Maersk loop to an equally modern terminal at Salalah in Oman.

"A lot of the Salalah cargo is bound for Europe and the US," said Ms Venkatesh. "There are ships from Krishnapatnam to Colombo and then to Salalah. US cargo is hubbed in Oman with the mother vessel moored at Salalah."

The only other serious competition is Chennai, 180 kilometres to the south, which apart from its large population, officially nine million, but estimated to be more like 20 million, has many old and loyal customers. But beyond that, there are few pluses from a shipping perspective.

"That's why I wouldn't consider them rivals," said Mr Yendluri. "First of all, they're city's port is locked in with very narrow roads. So their truck queue is anywhere between 25 to 40 kilometres nearly every day and my queue is not more than four or five trucks at the gate.

"And then their rail connection is congested because it is in the city. And all the rail lines are occupied by passenger trains. Ours are freight trains. I can handle 60 freight trains, they can handle four or five - 10 trains at best," he said.

Mr Yendluri said most of his containers move out by truck, but there are three trains a week "90 up, 90 down, every train".

Said Ms Venkatesh: "Now we have started another rail connection with ICD Hyderabad, one train a week. Then we plan to start a rail connection to Nagpur.

"So the fare is the same as to Chennai. What we do is guarantee on board transit time that is from the time the train leaves Bangalore to the time the container is on board the vessel, we guarantee 48 hours. Similarly with the return," she said.