Container Corporation of India (Concor) is concentrating on Gujarat ports of Mundra and Pipavav and accordingly has introduced direct services to these ports from various North Indian locations.

“We introduced Moradabad-Mundra service about a month ago and Kanpur-Mundra service a few days ago,” Mr Anil Kumar Gupta, Managing Director of Concor, told Business Line . “We've plans to launch similar services from Agra and Gwalior shortly.” It might be noted that Concor had earlier introduced services to Mundra from locations like Jaipur, Jodhpur, Delhi, Ludhiana and Dadri.

For the Moradabad service, as it was pointed out, the cargo inducement was adequate for both directions — both exports and imports — but the Kanpur-Mundra service would mainly cater to the export trade, and the same would be true about the proposed services from Agra and Gwalior.

Weekly service

Right now, Concor is offering weekly service between Mundra and Moradabad/Kanpur. “The frequency can be increased depending on the cargo support,” Mr Gupta observed. “We are quite flexible in this matter but we must have at least 90 boxes to run a full train.”

Concor's present move is in response to the changing market dynamics. Several shipping lines have shifted their services from Jawaharlal Nehru port to the Gujarat ports and Concor too would like to make the best use of the opportunities thrown up by the rescheduled services. Last month, it ran on an average four rakes a day to and from Mundra and Pipavav each. The Moradabad-Pipavav service was launched earlier.

Specialised containers

Meanwhile, Concor has placed orders for the manufacture of 98 specialised containers with Transafe Services Ltd . The containers will be used for transportation of fresh vegetables and various other perishables to National Horticulture Board's depots all over the country. The first such container was flagged recently at Transafe's factory at Kharagpur, West Bengal, by Mr Arup Roy, West Bengal Minister for Agriculture Marketing.

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