The Hindu Business Line : Vizag box terminal hopes to lure traffic from Raipur ICD

THE Visakhapatnam port's container terminal, run by VCTPL, a joint venture between United Liner Agencies of the JM Baxi Group and Dubai Port Authority, hopes to attract soon traffic to and from the newly-commissioned Raipur ICD (inland container depot) of Container Corporation of India (Concor).

"The Customs notification has been made and the rates have been announced and we're expecting the traffic to flow any day", a spokesman for VCTPL told Business Line over phone from Visakhapatnam.

The ICD at Raipur, the spokesman for Concor said, would be of great help to industrial units and trade located at Chhattisgarh and western part of Orissa.

The traffic should include not only rice, deoiled cake, heavy melting scrap required for local furnaces and foundries but also a wide variety of items needed by the plants of NTPC, BALCO and SAIL, all located in the region.

Large parcels of export quality rice are currently sent by rail and road from the region to west coast ports of Kandla and Mumbai involving substantial transportation cost.

The commissioning of the Raipur ICD and its link with the Visakhapatnam port's container terminal, it was hoped, would substantially reduce the inland logistics cost.

Meanwhile, the throughput at the Visakhapatnam port's container terminal on account of the ICDs located at Tughlakabad near Delhi and at Nagpur in central region is showing an upward trend.

In first four months of the current fiscal, the throughput was more than 1,100 TEUs, mostly imports and on account of Tughalakabad ICD.

The throughput would have been more but for the strike at Chennai container terminal. The container vessels, which call at Visakhapatnam also call at Chennai. The strike forced them to skip both the ports.

Once traffic starts flowing to and from Raipur ICD, the Visakhapatnam throughput will further rise, it was felt.