The Cargo Handling Corporation Ltd (CHCL) now has a new acting chairman following the departure of Sanjeeven Permal. He is Kechan Balgobin. He was a member of the board of the CHCL and has already taken up his post.
Kechan Balgobin is also the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (External Communications Division). This is common practice, according to some experts in the field, before the appointment of a full-time president.
Unless. According to these same sources, things are otherwise not moving.
Indeed, it is whispered that the new aviation structure, Airport Holdings, could set a precedent and that a similar structure is not to be ruled out in the port sector as well.
This structure could bring together the Cargo Handling Corporation Ltd and the Mauritius Ports AUthority (MPA).
But this will require some changes in the internal regulations of the CHCL, a body whose majority shareholder is the State but which is registered under the Registrar of Association as a private body.
For the time being, no official indication has yet emerged on this persistent rumour within the port sector.
As a reminder, former CHCL chairman Sanjeeven Permal resigned from his post in mid-September after more than a year as chairman of the CHCL.
The resignation came a week after leaders of the Port Louis Harbour and Dock Workers Union called for his resignation.
