The Hindu Business Line : Hind Terminals to invest Rs 600 cr on expansion

Freight moves
The Sabarmati-JNPT train has 45 wagons and can carry 90 containers.
Of the Rs 600-crore investment, Rs 140 crore will be spent on acquiring 10 more trains by December.
HTPL is also working out plans for expansion to South India

Ahmedabad June 8 Hind Terminals Pvt Ltd (HTPL), India's first privately-owned and managed freight train service provider, under the banner of `Hind Rail', is set to invest Rs 600 crore in the next two years in the first phase.

HTPL, which flagged off India's fourth privately owned freight train from its Sabarmati-based ICD to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) on Wednesday, is currently focussing on the Delhi NCR, Mundra and the Nhava Sheva ICDs to expand its activity across India.

"We have facilities and are open to running freight trains from Mundra and Pipavav as well," the HTPL CEO, Mr Mahendra Puri, told Business Line on Thursday.

Expanding

The Sabarmati-JNPT train has 45 wagons and can carry 90 containers. The company is already running freight trains from Ludhiana, Kota and Dadri to JNPT, he said. Currently, the company owns and operates four rakes and would add 10 more rakes in the next six months. The company has paid Rs 50 crore as licence fee to the Indian Railways for its operations.

Of the Rs 600-crore investment planned, the company is investing about Rs 140 crore to acquire 10 more trains by December, Mr Puri said. It is also investing another Rs 400 crore over the next two years to create infrastructure facilities, in the first phase of its expansion plans envisaging around 30 port locations and ICDs.

HTPL is also working out plans for expansion to South India, he said.

This facility would provide an ideal transport solution to the Gujarat trade and industry in a State-Private partnership, where the State infrastructure is managed by private management expertise. This service would give a fillip to the export trade.

Well-equipped

The freight train will run from Sabarmati in Gujarat to the CWC Logistic Park at Dronagiri Node in Navi Mumbai. This park is managed by HTPL, with three warehouses, of 30,000 sq. ft. each, for import, export and bonded warehousing facilities, along with a paved area of 70,000 sq. m. for a container yard and can handle 10,000 to 12,000 containers per month.

The facility is equipped with four of the latest Kalmar machines along with a fleet of three-tonne, five-tonne and 12-tonne forklifts stationed at the facility to provide the necessary cargo-related services. HTPL was established in 2003 in India as a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Sharaf Group.

HTPL has 41 owned offices across 30 port locations and ICDs in India.

HTPL has developed infrastructure for Container Freight Station (CFS) and ICDs. This is the first infrastructure business the Sharaf Group has ventured into in India.

Core business

The core business of HTPL is owning and operating of freight trains to service the export-import and domestic trade. This also includes the running of own railway wagons between different ICDs of the company across the country, under the banner of Hind Rail.

HTPL will provide a one-stop solution for logistics services covering transportation from and to the ICDs/CFSs, warehousing, de-stuffing, stuffing, handling and transportation — rail and road — and all allied activities. HTPL has obtained a licence from the Railways to operate container trains for 20 years on a pan-India basis.

HTPL has already operated round-trip container trains from ICD-Loni to JNPT for its commercial cargo, using captive rakes. The CFS and ICD facilities would facilitate customers to move cargo to multiple locations at a single time.

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