The Hindu Business Line : Hind Terminals to start pvt train service to Kochi port

Kochi, April 3 Kochi port will soon receive the first private container train service to its container terminal operated by India Gateway Terminal when Hind Terminals, part of Samsara Group, commences its service from Bangalore in May.

Discussions between the company and DP World, which operates the container terminal here, are in progress and it was proposed to start a weekly service with one rake carrying 90 TEUs to Kochi.

Sources in the shipping circle said here that Hind Terminals is one of the 16 private train operators in the country and it is also planning to start a similar service between Bangalore and Tuticorin shortly. It had already started a Delhi-Nava Sheva service.

With the commencement of the train service to Kochi, the sources pointed out that there is a possibility to attract more cargo from Bangalore as well as from ports in the South. This will also add tremendous value once the Vallarpadam Terminal becomes operational. The sources also mentioned that Concor had also agreed to start a train service between Coimbatore and Kochi by August to cater to the growing business from the region.

Volume growth

The volume of south Indian ports is growing considerably in the recent period and there is a need to look at more gateways other than Chennai for exports.

According to sources, the south Indian ports had handled around 1.7 million TEUs in 2007 and it is growing at 25 per cent on year on year basis.

The throughput in 2008 is expected at 2.2 million TEUs and additional cargoes had to find alternate gateways such as Kochi, Tuticorin and Mangalore due to constraints at the Chennai port.

Ideal gateway

Considering this, the Kochi port with spare capacity could be an ideal gateway for some of the hinterland cargo from Bangalore, Coimbatore and Salem. The container handling at Kochi had also grown considerably as the India Gateway Terminal had handled 25,494 TEUs in February, which is the highest ever throughput achieved in the port.

The share of Bangalore business to Kochi would also improve considerably in the coming days with the starting of the private train service as there already exists a better connectivity between the port and Bangalore after the Concor introduced its two train services per week, the sources added.

Meanwhile, Shipping Corporation of India had started a new UAE service from Kochi named SMILE (SCI Middle East India Liner Express Service) and its first vessel Rajiv Gandhi anchored at the port with 400 TEUs of cargo. The port of rotation of this service is Colombo-Kochi-Nava Sheva-Jebel Ali on a weekly basis. The advantage for the UAE shippers is that they would get three sailings to the UAE in a week.

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