Bhopal ICD shows little growth

Preserving the interests of the road sector is the main deterrent

The third dry port of MP at the Mandideep industrial area near Bhopal developed by Container Corporation of India (Concor) has failed to attract industries. Corporate houses find it easier and cheaper to load private truckers and haulers with their cargoes.

Concor set up the Mandideep dry port, which was scheduled to start from August last year, with an investment of about Rs 10 crore.

It is the 56th terminal of Concor in India and the third in Madhya Pradesh; two other terminals are in Pithampur and Gwalior.

Though Bhopal Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam Managing Director M S Khan told Business Standard Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Rail Minister Lalu Prasad did not find a date of their mutual convenience to inaugurate the port, industrialists in Mandideep, on conditions of anonymity say, no one wants disturb the existing cargo handling through road transportation.

The new dry port will operate once a week initially, with 50 containers; as a result, there will be dearth of racks.

"Exporters do not want to run the risk of losing their long-term business relations with truckers and transporters. If it (dry port) fails to take off, truckers will not only increase haulage but may deny their services in the area," an exporting-unit owner in Mandideep told Business Standard adding, "exports are picking up and corporate houses may not like to opt for cargo transportation through the inland container depot (ICD)."

Concor has created the port in anticipation that the ICD will receive cargoes from nearby towns like Jhansi, Jabalpur, Jabalpur, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Shivpuri, Guna, Bitul, and Itarsi. It had anticipated that wheat will come from Vidisha and Bina and de-oiled cake from Bhopal, Itrasi, Sehore, etc. and will get 500 twenty feet equivalent units (TEUs) of exports and around 200 TEUs of imports, per month.

Also there will be at least 100 TEUs of empty repositioning from ports to the Mandideep ICD and a similar number of TEUs of empty repositioning back to ports.

"But business does not run on presumptions," an exporter said.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), HEG, Nahar Spinning Mills, Ralson Tyers and Tubes, VA TECH Hydro, LupinLabs Limited., Bhasker Industries, Anant Spinning Mills, and Procter and Gamble require at least 1,200 containers every month.

Mandideep is connected to ports like Kandla (Gujarat), Mumbai and Vizag by rail railways and industrial towns exports and imports goods including medicines, cotton yarn, raw cotton, de-oiled cake, graphite electrodes and heavy engineering material, electric transformers, tyres and tubes etc.