Rail union plans secret ballot in February on strike Business Line The All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF), which claims to represent the majority of the transporter’s 13 lakh employees, has threatened to go on “indefinite strike” if its demands, such as review of the national pension scheme (NPS) and filling up of the large number of vacancies among others were not heeded. “We will conduct a secret ballot on February 11 and 12, to decide the date and future course of action (on strike),” AIRF General Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra told reporters here on Monday, adding that if employees voted in favour of an indefinite strike, “we will go for it and accordingly a date would be announced.” Mishra said about 2.5 lakh posts, including those of loco pilots, assistant station masters and track men, were lying vacant. Meanwhile, in support of the demand of the joint committee of all Central government employees, Railway staff in all State capitals plan to sit on a three-day dharna from January 19-21...

Paradeep Port cargo up 5% in Apr-Dec Business Standard Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) has recorded 5.23 per cent growth in its total cargo in April-December period of 2015-16. The port's cargo traffic in the period rose from 52.39 million tonne (mt) to 55.13 mt. The port handled 1156 ships compared to 1064 ships in the year-ago period. PPT has taken a slew of measures which has ensured improvement in productivity of ship days from 17,289 tonne in 2014-15 to 19,856 tonne in the period under review. The port recently declared its facility of CQ-1/CQ -2 and South Quay for handling Baby Cape ships up to 260 metres length, beam with 43 metres and draft of 14.5 metres. The port infrastructure like road and railway and drainage system is accordingly being realigned to augment the cargo handling capacity matched with the discharge /load rate of baby Capesize ships.

Dredging for Inland Water Transport Link Begins New Indian Express Following the Government’s proposal to develop an inland water transport (IWT) linking Kalinga Nagar industrial area, Paradip Port, Dhamara Port and Talcher, the authorities have started dredging work in river Tantighai, Kharasrota and other rivers. “We have started dredging work in river Tantighai to spruce up the river and make it navigable to build a temporary terminal at a cost of `47 crore in Earada,” said Avinash Roul, Deputy Project Director of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), Bhubaneswar. “Some villagers of Earada and its nearby areas recently demanded compensation in lieu of their land as they have land near the river. We along with the officials of the district administration are trying to sort out the matter”, said Roul. “The water levels of some of the rivers were not adequate to run a cargo vessel for which we will properly dredge the rivers up to a depth of three metres to the make rivers navigable for vessels carrying 3000 tonnes”, he added.

Iran sanctions lift-off: 'India-Kazakh transport corridor can become operational' Business Line A multimodal freight link between Kazakhstan and India through Iran can “technically” be operational once sanctions on the Islamic Republic is formally off. Ambassador of Kazakhstan to India, Bulat Sarsenbayev, said here at the MCC Chamber of Commerce & Industry that the rail link until the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas was already established. However, he said, there were certain bottlenecks that needed to be removed. “Kazakhstan railway authorities have given mandate to Adanis to work for two terminals at Mundra and Bandar Abbas. They are now doing the due diligence on the proposed projects”, Kazakhstan Ambassador said. He said that Kazakhstan might consider buying or having on lease rent such assets. Sarsenbayev said that the rail link could currently carry two to three million tonnes of freight annually. “This capacity is proposed to be upgraded to eight to 10 million tonnes. Logistics Chennai,International Freight Forwarders in Chennai, Custom Clearance Agents in Chennai , Checkout http://www.jupiterseaair.com