After having failed to meet its annual cargo targets last year by about 8 per cent, the shipping ministry has decided to leave no stone unturned to achieve the target this year.

The ministry is working on ‘letters of annoyance’ that will be shortly sent to all the ports that have failed to meet their cargo targets. These letters would be based on the performance of major ports’ in the first two months of this fiscal. “We are in the process of finalising the letters. It will be issued by the secretary to every major port that has failed to meet their targets for the last two months,” a senior ministry official told Financial Chronicle.

The move to tighten the noose around port operators comes after six ports reported poor performance last year. The ministry missed its targets by 8 per cent last year and decided to keep the projections for financial this year at a moderate 581 million tonne (mt) as against 576 mt in 2008-09.

The ports, including Kolkata Port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Ennore Port, have been requesting the shipping ministry to bring down their targets as they struggle with capacity constraints.

The ministry, which feels that the appointment of a new minister is an upgradation for the shipping department, is in no mood to revise the targets.

“We are not going to say yes for any reason. It’s only 5 mt increase and very much achievable,” a senior ministry official said. However, the ports have expressed their inability to meet their targets. JNPT has been given a target of 67.88 mt for 2009-10 as against 63.5 mt projected last year. This is despite the fact that the port had managed to carry only 57.28 mt cargo.

“It is practically impossible. They have given us a target of 14 mt for liquid cargo, whereas, the design capacity of the port to carry 5.5 mt. We can’t carry 6.7 mt. How far do they think we can stretch?” said a JNPT official.

Kolkata Port got a target of 56.11 mt this year while it handled 54.04 mt cargo last year. Port officials feel that the target set by the ministry is higher compared to ground realities. “Capacity is not the constraint. Market forces do not permit to handle so much cargo. In iron ore segment, exports from China, Japan declined drastically in 2008-09 to 8.7 mt as compared to 9.8 mt in 2007-08. Despite that, we have been given a target of 9 mt this year,” a senior Port official said. Ennore Port officials echo similar views. Ennore carried 11.50 mt cargo compared to 11.56 mt in the previous year. It has been given a target of 12.45 mt this year.