The Hindu Business Line : Norms for container train operators modified

Kolkata, July 18 The container train companies, both the state-owned Container Corporation of India (Concor) and private operators, heaved a sigh of relief at the revised guidelines issued by the Railway Board.

The guidelines are with regard to the use of Railways’ own terminals for loading/unloading of containers and to permissible free time at these stations for chassis operation as well as the use of the ground adjacent to the terminal.

The original notification, which was issued about a month ago and which came into force from July 1, created enormous problems for these operators as only a handful few terminals could be used by them for loading/unloading purpose. The free time allowed was also less.

In the earlier notification, the Rail Board had made three types of classifications of stations (terminals), stipulating that only category three stations, to be treated as container rail terminals, would allowed to be used for the purpose of loading/unloading of containers on board.

Revised guidelines

As a result, most stations became out of bounds for the container train operators including Concor which took it up with the Board for modification of the order. Under the revised guidelines, the restriction will now apply to only a limited number of stations, much to the relief of the container train operators.

Similarly, total permissible free time at the container rail terminals for loading/unloading and stuffing/destuffing of containers on a rake has since been increased from seven to nine days and the permissible free time for the use of ground adjacent to the terminal for dealing with a container train has been increased from 12 to 24 days.

Concor (ER) throughput

Meanwhile, Concor in the eastern region posted impressive growth in throughput in the first quarter of the current fiscal, with domestic traffic throughput having posted 37 per cent growth at 10,037 TEUs (7,326 TEUs in the same period of last year), export-import traffic 14 per cent growth at 4,167 TEUs (3,658 TEUs) and the Nepal traffic 54 per cent growth at 3,465 TEUs (2,256 TEUs). The throughput at Rourkela was particularly impressive at 1,458 TEUs (126 TEUs). However, Amingan (Guwahati) inland container depot presented a dismal picture in both domestic and tea exports. The domestic throughput was 471 TEUs(588 TEUs) and tea exports 264 TEUs (361 TEUs).

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