The current difficulties in clearing containers from the industrial port will be dealt with before the month of Ramadan, stated Mr Shahid Ali, CEO of Maldives Ports Limited.
Mr Sahid explained that difficulties in unloading and clearing goods from the port are a consequence of malfunctioned equipment and vehicles.
Currently, the operations within the commercial harbour are hassled and inconvenient, an issue that needs to be solved with the highest priority, stated Mr Shahid. He pointed out that speed of the clearance of containers depends on the equipment, most of which are damaged. Resolving the problem would give a smooth passage for ships to move in and out the port and therefore increasing the flow of money, explained Mr Shahid.
Mr Shahid stated that new equipment and vehicles are already being purchased, and the malfunctioning ones are being repaired.
At the moment, it takes 10 to 15 days for a ship to unload the cargo before departing. MPL’s target is to make it less than a week for the process so that local businesses will not be adversely affected.
There have been complaints raised by local businessmen since the price of goods rises due to delay in clearance. Given that, the primary responsibility of MPL, the clearance of goods, has to be ideally managed so as to avoid commercial repercussions in the future.
