An Analytical Hierarchy Process approach in Ranking the Ports: a Case Study of Major Ports of India

摘要

Marine transport is particularly important as it accounts for around 90% of material volume and nearly 80 % by value in global trade and business. Ports play vital role for the development of a country as they are critical nodes in the distribution of globally produced commodities and act as a bub of economic activities. Ports at different geographical location offer variable economic advantages I disadvantages to shipping industry. Distinguishing factors among different ports are drafts-restricting entry of large vessels, ships turn around time, waiting time for getting berths, cargo handling facilities, labour productivity in ports, availability of hinterland cargo, transshipment, container yards, railroad back up supports etc. On the basis of these users (viz shippers, charters, shipping companies, cargo owners, etc) of the ports want to judge the different ports. Port ranking in the light of such furnished information is of immense importance to sea borne trade. Ranking of major ports is a complex procedure of setting priorities in where one has to make the best decisions when both qualitative and quantitative aspects of a decision need to be considered. In this study, the authors compare the performance of major ports of India with respect to the criteria that would enable to achieve excellence in port's performance. In order to rank the ports on the basis of overall satisfaction with the ports views from four different sectors have been identified, viz, user of port, provider of port service, environment and the lastly society. Qualitative/experts judgments (with associated uncertainty) as primary data were obtained and analyzed by pair wise comparison method for priority ranking. Quantitative data for the year 2000-2001 as secondary data were obtained from 11 major ports of India for the 19 sub-criteria. The problem is then broken down into a hierarchy structure and a model of Analytical Hierarchy Process is developed to obtain best choice port, to earmark a specialised service essential to cater international trade.