The Hindu Business Line : Concor to set up another terminal at Kolkata port

THE Railways and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Container Corporation of India (Concor), have several plans for eastern region, according to the Railways Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar.

"Concor is setting up a new terminal within the Kolkata port and this will be its second terminal in the city and the Railways has already initiated several measures to boost traffic through the Kolkata port", Mr Nititsh Kumar observed while talking to newspersons after laying the foundation stone for Concor's new terminal in Kidderpore dock under the Kolkata dock System of the Kolkata Port Trust.

The rail-borne traffic between the Kolkata port and Raxaul on the India-Nepal border was on the rise and with the commissioning of the terminal within the port, the traffic from Delhi and Kanpur too would increase.

The Railway Minister indicated that the work on the terminal in the port would start within a month and would be completed within a year.

"The development of the Railways will also be dovetailed with those of the Kolkata port", he said.

Asked if there was any proposal for setting up another terminal at Haldia, the Minister said there were no such plans immediately. "However, much would depend on the trade", he added.

Asked why grain exports from north India to Bangladesh were being routed through Visakhapatnam and Tuticorin, when the Kolkata port was much closer to Chittagong , the Minister replied, "it is for the trade to decide; the Railways is only the service provider".

Earlier, while laying the foundation-stone for the terminal, the Railway Minister emphasised that the safety matters were being given top most priority and all sections of employees were being involved in it. The views of the five employees' federations, various officers' associations and others were being sought to work out a foolproof scheme.

The proposed Concor terminal within the Kolkata Dock System will have a total of about 30 acres of land including 10,000 sq ft of warehousing space. It will be complete with full-length rail siding, handling equipment such as cranes and reach stackers and requisite paving and other modern facilities. In the first year of operation, the terminal, which will handle both domestic and international traffic, is to have a throughput of about 26,000 TEUs, comprising 18,000 TEUs of domestic traffic (10,000 TEUs of inward and 8,000 TEUs of outward) and 8,000 TEUs of export-import traffic.

The principal commodities to be handled by the terminal will include milk products, paper, cloth, tea, white cement from Rajasthan area in inward direction and jute bales, corn soya blend, ductile pipes, batteries, paints and foodgrains in outward direction.

Mr A.K. Kohli, Managing Director of Concor, said within the next four years, Concor would spend about Rs 1,400 crore — Rs 700 crore on rolling stock and another Rs 700 crore on the creation of infrastructure such as terminals and acquisition of containers. He estimated Concor's turnover after four years at Rs 3,000 crore, almost double the figure of Rs 1,485 crore achieved in 2002-03.

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