The Hindu Business Line : Concor's Kolkata dock terminal likely by May-end

THE Container Corporation of India's (Concor) terminal being built within the Kolkata Dock System (KDS) is likely to be ready for operation sometime in end May or early June.

"The bulk of the work is complete", observe Concor sources, adding, ``the construction of the boundary wall is in progress.'' Spread over an area of 85,000 sq m, the terminal is estimated to cost around Rs 7.5 crore or so.

Once the KDS terminal becomes operational, Concor's present ICD (inland container depot) at Cossipore located within the city will be closed. Commissioned in 1997, the Cossipore ICD stopped handling international traffic more than two years ago, thus concentrating only on domestic traffic whose volume has been on the rise.

The KDS terminal too will cater mainly to the domestic trade, the sources observe. Some quantities of imports for the northern region, if routed through KDS, may also be handled by it. But then Concor is not sure about it. The traffic to and from Birgunj ICD in Nepal too will not be handled by the terminal as it will involve multiple handling and, therefore, additional cost.

Concor's Shalimar (Howrah) terminal, serving the domestic trade entirely, too has not been doing too well for sometime. The iron and steel items for the southern region constituted the bulk of its throughput. With several iron and steel units having sprung up in the southern region, the products from the East have been rendered uncompetitive, it is pointed out.

The ICD at Jamshedpur too was performing satisfactorily till a few months ago. Ever since the private sector steel giant restructured its operation as part of its expansion exercise, the production of some of the items and consequently the throughput of the ICD dropped. As a result, the total performance of the ICD in 2004-05 may not be something to crow about. However, it is felt that the regular and increased production will begin from around the middle of April, and with it will raise the throughput. The year 2005-06 holds out a big promise.

In 2004-05, the performance of Concor's various ICDs in the eastern region (including the one at Amingaon near Guwahati) may not be spectacular; yet, the Concor's total throughput in the region is likely to be higher than that in 2003-04. This will happen because Concor handles substantial volumes of traffic generated outside its own ICDs by the various sidings and terminals of the Indian Railways.

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