The comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India has slammed managements of major port trusts for capacity constraints, irregularities in assessment and deficiencies in dredging policy.

In a report — functioning of major port trusts in India — tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, CAG pointed out that there was a need to change the policy that compels some ports to engage only Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) to perform some service that often fails to maintain the required drafts.

It said that the cargo-handling services of ports were inefficient as predominant numbers of berths still did not have dedicated facilities required for quick handling. “Also, around 55 per cent of equipment available at all ports except at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port has crossed their economic lives, resulting in low utilisation. The users prefer to hire new and modern equipment privately that leads to revenue loss for many port trusts,” J N Gupta, additional deputy comptroller auditor general said.

At present, major ports own and maintain large fleet of equipment including shore cranes, trucks, pay loaders and stackers. However, the availability and utilisation of equipment has been declining. During 2007-08, average utilisation of equipment in Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata and Mumbai ports was 15.60 per cent, 15.54 per cent, 26 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. This is far lower than the ministry norm of minimum 60 per cent utilisation.

The auditor also observed that there were significant deficiencies in the formulation and fixation of performance targets. “The targets set up by the ministry through memorandum of understanding with the ports were mere upgrades of their previous years’ performance and were not based on any norms,” Gupta said.

Also only 31 out of 170 schemes planned for the first phase of National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) were completed till March 2009. “The schemes that have been taken up are primarily related to replacement of equipment where the average value of investment was below Rs 50 crore and was within the sanctioning power of the ports trust board. The progress of imp­­lem­en­tation of sch­emes relating to deepening of channels and construction of berths was dismal,” the report said.