Concor set to start inland container depot near Bhopal soon

Container Corporation of India (Concor) will start its new inland container depot (ICD) or dry port in Mandideep in August. Work on the dry port has been completed. Madhya Pradesh's exports stand at Rs 1,000 crore and imports also Rs 1,000 crore, approximately.

This will be the 56th terminal of Concor in India and the third in Madhya Pradesh; two other terminals are in Pithampur and Gwalior. The new dry port will be equipped with a single-window clearance facility.

Firms like Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), HEG, Nahar Spinning Mills, Anant Spinning Mills, Ralson Tyres and Tubes, VA TECH Hydro, Maxon Remedies, Lupin Bhasker Industries, Anant Spinning Mills, and Procter and Gamble require at least 1,200 containers every month but the nearest dry port is in Pithampur (Indore), some 200 km away.

Exporters face problems of non-availability of racks and additional expenses on haulage due to poor and indirect link with Ratlam railway station.

The Pithampur dry port, located near the special economic zone, Indore, handles almost 1,000 containers for import every year (873 containers for import during April-August 2004 and 2,352 containers or TEUs or twenty-feet equivalent units for export).

"The rail link with the new dry port will be ready by July 31 and the customs notification will be issued soon. The new port is expected to handle at least 2,000 export-import containers each month and will cover a radius of 500 km," A Sonwane, joint general manager, Concor, told Business Standard on the phone, adding, "primarily the port is likely to handle 50 containers a week but we are expecting a good inflow from Jhansi, Kanpur and other Uttar Pradesh units."

The cost of the dry port is yet to be disclosed but it is not less than Rs 10 crore. Madideep is well connected with ports like Kandla (Gujarat), Mumbai, and Vizag by rail and the industrial town exports and imports goods worth Rs 1,000 crore, including medicines, cotton yarn, raw cotton, de-oiled cake, graphite electrodes, heavy engineering material, electric transformers, tyres, tubes, etc.

"This new facility will boost exports not only in Madhya Pradesh but attract exporters of other states," said MS Khan, managing director, Madhya Pradesh Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam, the government agency that has offered land to Concor.