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G. Gurumurthy

Coimbatore , Oct. 26

THE Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), which has sought to move towards market oriented warehousing tariff structure to pep its custodial income from warehousing, is likely to concede to the demand from the Corporation-run warehousing outfit in Coimbatore, the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Singanallur, to redesignate the general warehousing operations being carried under the ICD roof .

Indications are that the CWC's corporate office may positively consider the request for the reclassification of the ICD Singanallur. The immediate consequence of the reclassification of the CWC's ICD Singanallur, if conceded, would be a discounted rate for the general warehousing tariff applicable for the Singanallur ICD complex, which besides the general warehousing also houses the container cargo handling and bonded warehousing.

A cut in the ICD Singanallur's tariff for general warehousing is intended to bring it almost on par with the prevailing rates offered by other competitors in the market.

At present the users of the general warehousing facility on CWC's Singanallur ICD premises pay the high-rated tariff which, according to sources, is higher by some Re 1 to Rs 1.10 per standard bag per month compared to the prevailing rate collected by other private warehouses/the State Government run warehouses in the city.

The officials at the ICD Singanallur feel that considering the need to retain the high occupancy levels the Corporation's warehousing and to blunt the emerging competition from the private warehousing/SWC's custodial services, the CWC should concede the reclassification of Singanallur premises.

The ICD officials have also argued that the tariff reduction should consider the fact that the users of the ICD Singanallur have to traverse a distance of 18 km from the Coimbatore Rail Goodshed to reach the Singanallur warehousing facility unlike the SWC-owned warehouse which is situated 9 km away from the Railway Goodshed point.

The ICD Singanallur's general warehousing facility with a covered space of some 7,000 sq metre (enough to handle 13,500 tonnes) accommodates all notified commodities and at present its occupancy stands at 95 per cent.

The ICD officials are however anxious that a lower rate structure should be announced at the earliest so that it would be in a position to retain the major institutional customers who are using the general warehousing.

Mr P.E. Prasad, Regional Manager of the CWC, Chennai, who was recently here to attend a trade meet conceded that the ICD Singanallur, has made out a case for the general warehousing tariff reduction. He told Business Line that CWC would favourably consider offering volume-based discounts/incentives to major corporates/institutions.

The ICD Singanallur, which has also introduced the custom bonded trucking (CBT) early this year, is poised to strengthen the CBT further. Towards this end, the CWC is also seriously working on a tie-up with a logistic partner who would be taken as a franchisee to run CBT between the ICD and major gateway ports in the South.

As the cargo export/import season is set to get busy in another month's time, the CWC is keen to strike a deal with a franchisee-logistic partner to handle its CBT venture so that it is not left behind in the already heated bonded trucking services off Coimbatore/Tirupur region and major southern ports.

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Lower warehousing tariff for Singanallur ICD sought

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