Two private container terminals run separately by DP World and APM Terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru port have secured a so-called ad-interim stay from the Mumbai high court on rate cuts ordered by India's port tariff regulator in February and March, reported The Mint.
The two terminals had filed petitions in the Mumbai high court seeking to stay the rate reductions.
"We have got an ad-interim stay from the Mumbai high court on Monday," said Dinesh Lal, chairman of Gateway Terminals, which is majority owned by Denmark's APM Terminals. "The ad-interim stay means that we can bill customers on old tariffs till the matter is decided by the court."
Gateway is one of the two private terminals operating at JN port, India's busiest container gateway.
Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), the facility run by Dubai's DP World at JN port, also confirmed that the court has granted an interim stay on the rate reduction ordered by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP).
On 8 February, TAMP had notified a rate cut of 44.3 percent at the facility run by Gateway Terminals after the firm sought a rate increase of 8.72 percent. On 1 March, TAMP notified a rate cut of 27.9 percent at NSICT when the firm sought a 30 percent raise.
JN port, located near Mumbai, loaded 4.32 million standard containers, or 55.6 percent of India's container cargo shipped through the 12 ports controlled by the Union government in the year to March 2012.
Out of this, Gateway Terminals loaded 1.89 million standard containers while NSICT handled 1.4 million standard containers.
"It's (the stay) a good start," said a spokesperson for NSICT. "It's definitely a relief."
The two petitions will come up for hearing again on 6 August.
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