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Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata , Sept. 26

THE Container Corporation of India (Concor) has suspended its Cossipore (Kolkata) - New Guwahati (Assam) domestic run in view of "certain operational problems" at the New Guwahati end. Precisely for the same reason, its plan to transport about 100 TEUs of Hindustan Lever Ltd's tea every month from New Guwahati to Cossipore has been put on hold.

Concor is upset at the development. Perhaps rightly so. While there is a good deal of traffic — equivalent of one rake a week — on the Cossipore-New Guwahati sector, the cargo inducement in the opposite direction (i.e. on the New Guwahati-Cossipore sector) leaves much to be desired. The HLL traffic, it was felt, would have changed the situation for better. However, that is not to happen, at least immediately.

The crux of the problem is that Concor does not have a terminal of its own at New Guwahati. It is sharing a goods shed and a siding, known as Shillong siding,with the North Frontier Railway, hoping that there will be peaceful co-existence. However, such a co-existence has proved to be elusive. This is because the New Guwahati station of NF Railway caters not only to Assam but also to the entire north-eastern region, with the result there is a heavy pressure of traffic. Even in the worst of times, the station is required to handle at least four rakes of incoming traffic every day. The goods shed as also the adjoining areas therefore remain clogged with trucks all the time, leaving little room for Concor to handle its own traffic. The situation becomes particularly critical during the monsoon. The deployment of more and better handling equipment, as contemplated by Concor at one time, was subsequently not pursued as it was realised that such a step was not going to ease the congestion.

Inquiries reveal that the NF Railway is unhappy with the way the Concor has been going about in New Guwahati. First the performance of the handling equipment deployed by Concor has been far from satisfactory; also, the capacity of the Shillong siding being limited (only 22 eight-wheeler wagons at a time), it takes a long time, often more than a week, to unload a rake and backload it. No wonder, the Railway Board, at the insistence of the NF Railway, has imposed restriction on container handling at New Guwahati. With it has come the NF Railway's own restriction on container movement to ease the congestion.

Concor, it is learnt, is at a loss as to how to handle the crisis. After all, the suspension of services from Cossipore to New Guwahati is costing it dear. The traffic which was booked by the trade for rail movement is now getting diverted to the roadways. Once diverted, it becomes difficult to bring the traffic back. The utilisation of the facilities at the Amingaon inland container depot (ICD) was considered but not favoured.

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