• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Spurt in traffic; Durgapur terminal work `progressing'

Kolkata May 31 The Container Corporation of India (Concor) proposes to revive its earlier plan to launch a domestic terminal at Rourkela in Orissa.

The proposal to set up a terminal in Rourkela was first mooted more than a year ago only to be shelved due to priority accorded to other projects. It is being revived now following spurt in traffic from that area.

In May, Concor loaded a total of 726 containers — 486 in Rourkela and 240 in Rajgangpur.

The corresponding figures for April were 320 TEUs and 60 TEUs, respectively.

The traffic volume, mainly comprising products of the secondary steel producers and sponge iron units which are abound, is expected to rise in the coming days, it is felt.

The Concor's plan to launch a terminal at Durgapur, according to sources, is progressing.

The contract for the construction will be awarded shortly. Estimated to cost around Rs 2 crore, the Durgapur terminal, on completion, is expected to handle at least 10 rakes a month.

Bullish on traffic

Concor sources sounded bullish about the prospects of domestic traffic in eastern region in the current year. The domestic throughput at about 31,000 TEUs in 2006-07 posted little increase over that in 2005-06.

However, if the present trend so far is any indication, the throughput in the current year might be around 35,000-36,000 TEUs, it is estimated.

"At 6,400 TEUs in first two months, we're already up by 1,200 TEUs compared with the same period of last year," the sources observed.

Meanwhile, Concor has launched three high-speed BLC rakes on the Kolkata port-Birganj ICD (Nepal) circuit in place of the old air brake rakes. The rakes have several advantages.

High-speed rakes

First, these being high-speed rakes have faster torn-around time and each rake can make at least four trips a month. No inspection is needed for journey up to 6,000 km.

Second, the rakes are of higher capacity, 90 TEUs each compared with 70 TEUs previously, and, finally, each rake is fitted with strong anti-pilferage devices.

The traffic throughput on the route too, is showing an upward trend. In the first two months, the average throughput per month was around 1,200 TEUs compared with 900 TEUs per month in 2006-07, posting a growth of more than 30 per cent.

More Stories on : Supply Chain Management | Infrastructure

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Bangalore airport evaluating suggestions on design aspects

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line