Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Feb 24, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Feb 24, 2006 |
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Logistics
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Infrastructure Industry & Economy - Steel Concor to launch new terminals in East — Amingaon, Balasore ICD facilities to be upgraded Santanu Sanyal
Kolkata , Feb. 23 Container Corporation of India (Concor) is to launch two new terminals and upgrade facilities at two of the existing inland container depots (ICDs) in the eastern region. The new terminals will be located at Durgapur (West Bengal) and Rourkela (Orissa), while the existing ICDs at Amingaon (Assam) and Balasore (Orissa) will be upgraded. The new terminals will cater mainly to the steel sector. In addition to Steel Authority of India Ltd's integrated steel plants in Durgapur and Rourkela, a large number of sponge iron and smaller steel-making units have come up in Durgapur-Asansol belt (West Bengal) and Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Rourkela belt (Orissa). These units demand facilities for evacuation of their products in containers by train as the present system of evacuation leaves much to be desired. Concor has already asked for land from the Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority for the proposed Durgapur terminal and is in the process of finalising the plan. Till the terminal is ready, it will use the railway goods shed at Ranigunj, not far from Durgapur, to meet the requirement of the steel and sponge iron units in the area. The senior officials of Concor recently visited Rourkela at the request of the local chambers of commerce. The chambers demanded Concor's services from Rourkela area and in return offered an assured cargo inducement equivalent of about 1,000 TEUs per month. Right now, these units are required to transport their products by road to the nearest railway goods sheds located at Rourkela, Birmitrapur or Rajgangpur for loading in either BCN wagons or in containers. They want the arrangement replaced by Concor's door-to-door services. The ICD at Amingaon (Assam) is one of the first such depots launched by the Railways in the early 80s. For a long time, it functioned as a seasonal ICD, coming to life for a few months in a year, only during the tea shipment season. Of late, the ICD has started handling domestic traffic also. This, though keeps the ICD busy for greater part of the year, has at the same time thrown up a problem. The ICD, designed to handle only export-import traffic, has a bonded enclosure under the Customs authorities, but no separate enclosure for domestic traffic. It is believed that the Customs authorities are allowing part of bonded enclosure for use of the domestic traffic, but such an arrangement could not continue for long. There has to be a separate enclosure for domestic traffic. Also, there is no facility for handling a full rake at Amingaon ICD. Concor, therefore, is mulling construction of a railway line for handling full rake in addition to building a separate enclosure for domestic traffic. The ICD at Balasore remained dormant for a long time for want of traffic. It became operational only recently, mainly to handle domestic traffic. However, there is no handling equipment at the ICD, nor any system of providing door-to-door service. Concor, therefore, plans to correct these deficiencies. What the Concor authorities in the East feel upset about is the lack of cargo inducement in the region vis-à-vis other regions of the country. In the East, the operation is spread over West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam and the North-East, and yet the volume of traffic by trains is so insignificant.
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