The Hindu Business Line : Rlys rider for PRCL to operate container trains

PIPAVAV Railway Corporation Ltd (PRCL) will have to pay an annual licence fee/royalty of 2 per cent on its actual turnover to the Indian Railways for operating container trains to and from the Pipavav port to various hinterland inland container depots (ICDs) in the country.

Early this week, the Railway Ministry had accorded permission to PRCL on a long-pending proposal to run container trains to and from the Pipavav port, breaking the monopoly enjoyed by its own Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) in this area.

As per the approval, PRCL will be allowed to operate container trains carrying only export-import cargoes.

The licence fee/royalty to be paid by PRCL will be over and above the haulage charges it pays to the Indian Railways for using their infrastructure.

The licence fee/royalty is to be paid by PRCL in advance based on actual revenues earned from carrying containers for the last completed financial year and is to be adjusted after the actual turnover of the year is available, Railway Ministry officials said.

For 2005-06, PRCL has to pay an ad-hoc licence fee of Rs 3 crore by March 31, 2005. However, for fiscal 04-05, PRCL can pay the licence fee after the actual turnover is available.

The haulage charges for PRCL will be the same as the one stipulated by the Railway Ministry in the case of Concor. PRCL would set its tariffs after taking the haulage charges fixed by the Railway Ministry as the base.

PRCL, the first case of public-private partnership in rail transportation, is a 50-50 joint venture between the Indian Railways and Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd (GPPL) that was set up to construct, maintain and operate the 270 km-long broad gauge railway line connecting the Pipavav port in Gujarat to Surendranagar Junction on the Western Railway.

It will be allowed to operate on 15 routes between the Pipavav port and several hinterland ICDs. This includes haulage of boxes from Pipavav to Nagpur, Indore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Lucknow, Gwalior, Kolkata, Guwahati, Delhi, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, among others.

PRCL officials said that it would take a while for actual operations to start since this would require a fleet of container wagons. "Most wagon manufacturers are full with orders. Even if the order is placed immediately, it would take some time for the delivery of wagons," he said.

To start with, PRCL is looking at running 10 rakes, which would require an investment of around Rs 120 crore for acquiring the rolling stock.

For funding the acquisition of wagons, PRCL can either approach banks or take the wagons on lease or on hire purchase. "There are various financing options available for procuring wagons. We will now discuss the options at the board level and take a call on the best available option," the PRCL official said.

PRCL will also have to forge joint ventures with Concor or other private entities that are operating hinterland ICDs.

Going by the current trend, the Pipavav port is expected to handle 1,20,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the fiscal ending March 2005.

"Container volumes are growing at the Pipavav port and this is expected to get a further fillip with APM Terminals acquiring strategic control of the port", he added.

APM Terminals is the container terminal operating unit of the Danish AP Moeller-Maersk A/S Group which runs Maersk Sealand, the largest container shipping line in the world.

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