The Hindu Business Line : Concor in the East

THE Container Corporation of India (Concor) launched its first office in the eastern region in Kolkata in November 1991 but its presence in the region dated back even earlier, in 1989, when Concor was formed.

The inland container depot (ICD) in Amingaon (near Guwahati) was one of the first seven ICDs set up by the Railways in the early 1980s. At that time, it was under North Frontier Railway. Subsequently, when Concor was formed, the Amingaon ICD was brought under it and under the eastern regional office in November 1991.

ICDs in East: Much water has flowed down the river Hooghly since then and Concor's business in the East too expanded over the years. Right now, Concor's eastern regional office in Kolkata controls as many as seven ICDs located at Amingaon (Assam), Balasore (Orissa), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), Fatuah (Bihar), Shalimar, Haldia and Majherhat (the last three being in West Bengal). In addition, Concor is one of the promoters of the Himalyan Terminals Pvt Ltd, the joint venture company that runs the ICD at Birgunj in Nepal.

In the past five years, i.e., between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, the throughputs of all these ICDs increased, though not by leaps and bounds. Thus, in 1999-2000, the throughput of domestic traffic was 14,875 TEUs, which rose to 31,612 TEUs in 2004-05.

During the period, the international traffic (imports and exports) increased from 11,898 TEUs to 28,335 TEUs. In first six months of the current fiscal (April to September 2005-06), the corresponding figures were 13,181 TEUs (domestic) and 17,295 TEUs (international).

Growth of throughputs: There are several reasons why the growth of throughputs of the Concor ICDs located in the east is not spectacular. Let us examine the ICDs individually. The Amingaon ICD, the oldest, is by and large a seasonal ICD as far as the exim traffic is concerned. It handles only tea and the shipments of tea keep the ICD busy for six months a year. To step up throughput, the ICD, therefore, has started handling domestic traffic whose volume is equivalent of two rakes a month. The Balasore ICD was readied in 2001 but it remained dormant for many years. The projected exim traffic did not materialise. In 2002-03, it handled 44 TEUs of domestic traffic, 46 TEUs in 2003-04, nil in 2004-05 and 456 TEUs so far this year. Jamshedpur ICD was launched in 2002 but its throughput of exim traffic has remained negligible. It mainly handles domestic traffic but the volume of throughput leaves much to be desired. One reason for this is because rail coefficient of the traffic on Tata Steel account is less than 50 per cent as compared to SAIL's 98 per cent. Which means substantial quantities of finished steel are moved by road. Fatuah ICD, launched in 2002, handles limited quantities of domestic traffic almost entirely and that too only inward traffic. The ICDs located in West Bengal too have their own problems, which are being tackled by Concor through various ways.

The Birgunj ICD now handles Nepal's imports and exports with countries other than India and routed through Kolkata port. Such an arrangement has its own limitations.

Hopefully, the ICD will soon start handling much larger volumes of traffic as both the countries have initiated steps to enable the ICD handle the bilateral trade, i.e., the trade between India and Nepal.

EsEs

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Industry upbeat on Tata Steel's expansion

The green touch

Concor in the East

TRF: Hiring more to stay on growth path

Putting lustre back to tinplate packaging

XLRI students to get taste of `real India'

Sports channels have to share telefeed with Prasar Bharati — Cabinet clears uplinking, downlinking policy

Cabinet gives in-principle nod for IBP-IOC merger

Bangalore infrastructure issues — Narayana Murthy quits as BIAL Chairman