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Container Corporation of India (Concor) is planning to develop its Shalimar terminal (Howrah, West Bengal) into a hub for domestic traffic and is accordingly offering attractive packages to customers guaranteeing cargo.
A beginning has already been made. Attractive discounts are being offered to customers providing firm cargo support to the Shalimar-Amingaon (Guwahati)-Shalimar and Shalimar-Khodiyar (Ahmedabad)-Shalimar routes. The Shalimar-Tondiarpet (Chennai)-Shalimar route is also being considered for the purpose, it is learnt.
As Concor sources point out, the cargo inducement is satisfactory for the Shalimar-Amingaon leg but leaves much to be desired for the Amingaon-Shalimar leg.
Concor, therefore, has suggested that any customer offering cargo for the round trip will be entitled to good discount provided he offers 60 containers for the Shalimar-Amingaon section and some containers, not necessarily 60, for Amingaon-Shalimar section.
The initial response has not been bad, the sources point out.
A similar package, already offered for the Shalimar-Khodiyar –Shalimar route, is also being considered for Shalimar-Tondiarpet-Shalimar route. While the cargo inducement on Khodiyar -Shalimar and Tondiarpet-Shalimar legs is satisfactory, not so in the opposite directions.
It might be noted that during the tea season, an estimated 3,000 boxes move between Amingaon and Kolkata port (not Shalimar) but it is one-way traffic and seasonal.
Growth in throughput
Meanwhile, in 2010-11, Concor in eastern region posted 10 per cent growth in domestic traffic at 40,000 TEUs, up from 36,463 TEUs in 2009-10. Except the terminals at Durgapur and Balasore, all others located at Shalimar, Kolkata port, Amingaon, Jamshedpur, Rourkela and Haldia posted growth in throughput.
However, Concor's international (export-import) traffic in the region posted a five per cent drop during the period at 36,863 TEUs (38,739 TEUs).
The drop was recorded despite 11 per cent rise in Birganj (Nepal)-bound traffic at 19363 TEUs (17,443 TEUs).
The drop in international traffic was largely due to the decline in tea shipments from Assam due to the crop loss caused by incessant rains and the consequent pest attacks in the region last year and slump in wire rope shipments through Haldia.
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