Some 16 terminals surrendered by Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) will be notified as goods sheds, a standard user facility which can be accessed by all on payment of an access charge, the Railway Ministry has said. Concor built these terminals on land leased from the Indian Railways.

“In view of less business as well as a sudden abnormal increase in land license fee by Railways, these terminals have become unviable to run from a business point of view,” Concor said while handing over these facilities to Indian Railways.

The Railway Ministry has also asked zonal railways to examine the prospect of notifying these terminals as container rail terminals (CRTs), a move that could facilitate licensed container train operators to access these terminals for picking up and dropping cargo from containers.

“All efforts must be made to advise potential customers of using these terminals and to attract maximum freight traffic,” Barjesh Dharmani, executive director, traffic commercial (rates), Railway Board, wrote in a July 6 circular.

The terminals that were returned to the Indian Railways include four from the Western region (Chinchwad in Pune, Miraj, Ratlam and Nagpur), four from the Northern region (DCT Okhla, Babarpur in Panipat, Rewari and Ballabhgarh), three from the South Central region (Desur in Belgaum, Raipur and Visakhapatnam CFCV), two from Eastern region (Tata Nagar in Jamshedpur and Rourkela) and one each from North Central region (Madhosingh in Mirzapur) and North Western region (Sabarmati), according to the official.

CONCOR has also handed over the empty container parks at its Tughlakabad terminal – New Mineral Siding Okhla, Power Cabin and the New Power Cabin near Tughlakabad Railway Station – to the Indian Railways.

These terminals were not generating revenue for Concor.

It has also surrendered 26.58 acres of land at its Tondiarpet facility in Chennai, 4.15 acres at Milavittan in Thoothukudi and plans to return Railway land at Fatuha near Patna.

In a separate development, the Railways Ministry has decided not to levy terminal charges of ₹20 per ton on freight traffic booked to and from other goods sheds.

An analysis of the traffic handled at different goods sheds has revealed that while some of the goods sheds are very busy, resulting in frequent restrictions on loading to these goods sheds, other goods sheds in the vicinity of these active goods sheds remain under-utilised, according to the Ministry.

There are some 47 other goods sheds in the vicinity of 38 busy goods sheds on Indian Railways.

“In order that these under utilised (alternate) goods sheds are utilised better and thereby improve loading to and from that area, it has been decided to issue a policy that incentivises customers in using these alternate goods sheds instead of the busy ones,” a Railway Board circular said.

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