The Hindu Business Line : New-look Kolkata box terminal, ahoy

The Kolkata port authorities are bullish about the prospects of the box terminal, which handled 1.25 lakh TEUs last fiscal, representing a 15 per cent growth as compared to the previous year.

CARDINAL Logistics Ltd (CLL), the subsidiary of ABG Heavy Industries Ltd, which had bagged the contract for development and operation of the Kolkata Port container terminal project, is confident of commissioning the re-developed terminal next month.

The ABG Group, which owns 76 per cent stake in Cardinal Logistics, is investing Rs 40 crore to develop the terminal by deploying a slew of container handling equipment. While two harbour mobile post-Panamax cranes will reach Kolkata from Austria by August 18, three reach stackers will be deployed at the terminal by August 24, along with other handling equipment. "By next month, the developed terminal will be commissioned," a senior official of the company told Business Line.

The ABG Group, engaged in port and infrastructure development, is also among the 17 companies in the race for the shallow berth container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru port, which will be located between the port's terminal and the third terminal that is being developed by Gateway Terminals India Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between APL Terminals and Concor. The terminal operator and the Kolkata port authorities are bullish about the prospects of the box terminal, which handled 1.25 lakh TEUs last fiscal, representing a 15 per cent growth as compared to the previous year. "With the new equipment, we are confident of handling at least 1.50 lakh TEUs in the current fiscal," according to the official.

While the Kolkata port authorities have assured CLL a minimum throughput of 67,000 TEUs at the terminal, the company is confident that the traffic would rise to 1.5 lakh TEUs in the first year of operation and could touch the 3 lakh TEUsin the next two-three years.

CLL's optimism stems from the fact that Concor is in the process of setting up at the Kolkaa port an Inland Container Depot (ICD), which would link the port to the Tughlakabad ICD with a direct train service. This would assure a steady flow of traffic to the port.

Further, with mainline vessels getting priority at the JNPT and Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, operated by P&O Ports, feeder vessels are being elbowed out of these terminals.

"Hence, feeder vessels have been looking for a port where they could get a priority. And, with draft limitations at Kolkata port not allowing the bigger-sized mainline vessels, feeder operators could flock to the port's container terminal," the official pointed out.

With the commissioning of this terminal and the setting up of a new port at Kulpi, about 50 km downriver from Kolkata, on the Hooghly, by P&O Ports, the region could emerge as a prominent container hub.

The Kulpi port, which is being developed along with a Special Economic Zone to complement each other's operation, is likely to initially have a new container terminal and multi-purpose berth with a capacity of about 0.5 million TEUs.

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