Container Corporation of India (Concor), a part of the Indian Railways, has launched two new container services connecting Rachagunneri (Andhra Pradesh) to Pantnagar (Uttarakhand), and from Nagalapalle (Telangana) to Gandhinagar (Gujarat).
It also revived the service from (Andhra Pradesh) to Tughlakabad (New Delhi), and from Tondiarpet (Chennai) to Turbhe (Mumbai) after a long time, G Gayatri, Area Head - III, Concor, told businessline. In all these new streams Concor recently ran the first rake, she said.
There are no scheduled services at present between these streams. Concor will run them as per customer demands. However, if the demand for a particular stream increases, Concor will consider a scheduled service. “We are at present expecting to run around two trains per month to each of these locations with 80 to 90 containers,” she added.
These are domestic containers that belongs to Concor. They will be used at Concor terminals across the country for loading cargo. Some of the cargoes likely to be handled include rice, pulses and glass. They need not come back to the same destination from where they left. For example rakes going to the west from south can be used there for loading cargo to other parts of India. There is sufficient inventory of domestic containers in the southern terminals at present, she said.
With these streams, there will be a shift from road to rail, especially those with higher tonnage where rail is beneficial. Customers will get a cost advantage of 3 per cent to 7 per cent. Through these streams, Concor can build a circuit where the loaded run of containers increases and empty container running is reduced. This will help Concor to improve its bottom line and ultimately lead to reduction of logistics costs for customers, she said.