Director of Port Operations — Interim, Container Terminal

The mandate

Repeated quay-crane failures pushed vessels off-window and filled the yard beyond safe density. The operations director departed following a dispute over maintenance deferral, leaving marine planning and engineering to trade blame while congestion grows.

The interim must join within two weeks for twelve months, spanning asset recovery and one monsoon peak. The role returns to an internal deputy after that leader completes formal readiness gates; no external permanent role is planned.

Handover requires gross crane rate above twenty-eight moves per hour, berth-window adherence above ninety per cent, yard density below seventy-two per cent for four months, and the deputy running two disruption exercises and one maintenance shutdown.

The director may change vessel plans, restrict yard intake, stop unsafe equipment and approve emergency maintenance below ₹75 lakh. Customer compensation, labour agreements and capital above ₹3 crore require executive consent; customs and harbour-master authority cannot be overridden.

Commercial tariff, inland depot strategy and new-terminal development are outside scope. The work must restore safe throughput within the existing concession and asset portfolio.

Why this seat is open

The disagreement over deferred maintenance became untenable once service and yard safety deteriorated together. Immediate replacement is necessary because terminal flow cannot be managed by separate functional caretakers. A finite operator will reset the system and qualify the internal deputy for sustained command.

What you will own

• Reconcile vessel windows, crane availability, yard slots, gate demand and labour into one forty-eight-hour operating plan.
• Decide berth and crane allocation using contractual window, exchange size, connection exposure and asset condition.
• Establish condition-based maintenance priorities and protected intervention windows for critical equipment.
• Reduce yard density through stack strategy, evacuation plans, aged-container escalation and gate appointment control.
• Run disruption exercises covering crane loss, weather closure, hazardous cargo and landside interruption.
• Certify daily productivity and delay causation using equipment and move-event evidence.
• Qualify the internal deputy through observed shutdown, peak and emergency operating cycles.

Candidate qualifications

• More than twenty-two years in container-terminal operations with berth, yard and equipment leadership.
• Recovered a congested terminal after major crane unreliability or berth-window deterioration.
• Strong command of vessel planning, quay productivity, yard strategy, gate flow and maintenance interaction.
• Experience negotiating operational recovery with shipping lines without conceding unsafe or impossible plans.
• Evidence of using equipment event and move data to assign delay causes credibly.
• Practical leadership of unionised, continuous operations during weather and asset disruption.

Non-negotiables

• Onsite at the Chennai terminal within two weeks and available for continuous-operation escalation.
• No relationship with crane maintenance contractors or shipping-line customers under dispute.
• Prepared to restrict intake or stop equipment when density or safety thresholds are breached.
• Available for the full twelve-month cycle and deputy qualification.

1. 49 words maximum. When can you take terminal command, including nights and disruption escalation?
2. 49 words maximum. What crane-rate and yard-density recovery did you sustain at a congested terminal?
3. 49 words maximum. Which vessel plan did you reject because equipment or yard evidence made it unsafe?