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Santanu Sanyal

Say container trains will cut transit time by half, reduce costs

Kolkata May 3 The exporters of the North Indian teas to Pakistan want to send their consignments across the border by container trains in preference to the present system of shipments by the sea route and have accordingly moved the various levels, including the Container Corporation of India (Concor). Concor too is believed to have taken up the matter with the Railway Board, which recently sent a team to Pakistan.

The infrastructure for rail transportation between the two countries, as the tea exporters point out, is already in place as the goods trains from India currently run up to Lahore. Only a few modifications will be enough to run the container tea trains from Amingaon (Guwahati) inland container depot (ICD) in Assam to Karachi without any problem.

Time-consuming

At present, all teas to Pakistan are sent by the sea route and the shipments are routed through the port of Karachi. The shipments of the North Indian teas are undertaken through Colombo port, the route being Kolkata/Haldia-Colombo-Karachi. It is long, cumbersome, time-taking and therefore costly. The introduction of container trains, it is felt, will reduce the transit time by half, if nor more than half, and therefore push up the exports of North Indian teas by a 5 million kg (mkg) immediately and many times more gradually.

An estimated 3 mkg of North Indian teas are currently exported to Pakistan out of India's total tea exports of about 15 mkg annually to that country.

The issue of rail transportation of North Indian teas to Pakistan came up for a review during the Indian tea delegation's recent visit to Pakistan.

Cost-effective

The trade on both sides showed keen interest in such a transportation arrangement. While the Indian side saw in it a cost-effective means to boost tea exports to a neighbouring country, the Pakistan side too supported the move for reaching teas to a large section of its population at reasonable rates. Tea imports in Pakistan are routed through Karachi while the consumption centres are spread all over the country. The consumers located in areas close to the Indian border, though far off from Karachi, therefore can hope to get Indian teas at cheaper rates if the teas are transported by the land route, particularly the rail route.

There is another point. The tea packeters, mostly concentrated in Karachi, would like to step up buying from India because the Indian teas, which are strong, blended with the Kenyan varieties, which are light and bright, have evoked good market response and the market of the packet teas in Pakistan is slowly but steadily increasing. At present, packet teas account for an estimated 70 mkg out of the total consumption of 170 mkg and the growth rate is good.

Mr S.R. Thakur, Additional Member (Traffic), Railway Board, who recently visited Pakistan to renew till January 2010 the tenure of the agreement governing the running of Samjhauta Express between the two countries, told Business Line that there had been no discussion with his counterparts in Pakistan Railways about the running of container trains. The question of running container tea trains from Assam to Lahore therefore did not arise, at least immediately.

"We mooted the proposal to run more freight trains between the two countries and to introduce freight trains on the Munnabao-Khokrapar route in Rajasthan but we have been told that the facilities on the Pakistan side are not adequate for running such services," he said. Mr Thakur, however, pointed out that there was a proposal to have a freight terminal near Lahore at Jallomor on the railway section connecting Atari on the Indian side.

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