JNPT, terminal operators plan rail JV

The congestion at India's largest port is set to ease dramatically, with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) planning to float a joint venture for a common rail operator (CRO) service with its container terminal partners. JNPT handles 58 per cent of India's container traffic.

JNPT's partners in the venture will be Dubai Ports World and a consortium of Maersk India and Container Corporation of India (Concor).

Under the unique CRO concept, the three terminals would come together and pool resources to load and evacuate import containers to specified Inland Container Depots (ICDs) in each common box trains. Import boxes destined for ICDs were always the primary reason behind the congestion at the port.

For example, the three terminals would assemble the import boxes destined for to Delhi ICD in a common yard and load it in a Delhi-bound container train, operated by state-owned company Concor or private box train operators.

Currently, Concor, the country's only container train operator, is running dedicated rakes to three terminals for specified ICDs. As Concor want to ply only full laden trains to various ICD destinations, the containers wait at the port, creating congestion and blocking space for export cargo too. The CRO system will ensure continuous evacuation of containers on First In First Out (FIFO) basis.

JNPT now has backlog of over 7,000 twenty foot ICD-destined containers, resulting in acute congestion and delays.

JNPT chief manager (operations) R T Revankar confirmed the development, adding "The JNPT board has approved the idea of CRO and has submitted the proposal to the shipping ministry."

The CRO proposal, originally mooted by Concor, is also expected to reduce the dwell time of import boxes at the port and thereby save demurrage cost.

Sources said the joint venture is likely to charge Rs 400 to Rs 500 for the movement of a twenty-foot container. "Concor had actually proposed Rs 1,350 per twenty foot container. But with optimum utilisation of existing resources with terminals, the cost is set to come down. The joint venture is expected to invest heavily for materialising the concept," sources added.