CWC's road warehousing complex by March-end

The Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), a central government undertaking, is setting up a Railside Warehousing Complex (RWC) at Nashik Road Railway Station here and it is expected to be operational by March 31.

To strengthen its logistics base across the country the CWC recently singed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Railways for setting up a Railside Warehousing Complexes (RWC) at 22 major rail terminals across the country, including one at Nashik Road.

The Railways will provide land for the complexes on a long lease, while the cost of construction will be borne by the CWC.

The storage capacity of the Nashik Road-based RWC will be 9,000 metric tonne (MT) and CWC's investment in this RWC will be around Rs 12-14 crore. The RWC will have completely computerised facilities with AC Office and Canteen Block.

The RWCs will facilitate direct unloading of the wagons to the warehouse. Transporting goods after clearance from the rake to the godown will be avoided so that there will be no need to hire godowns away from the goods shed.

This will result in heavy savings in handling cost. The rake can be cleared quickly, thereby avoiding rake detention and railway wharfages.

"The CWC, which will turn 50 this month, began functioning initially with seven warehouses with a 7,000 metric tonne capacity. Today, CWC handles a huge network of 507 warehouses, 87 bonded warehouses, 31 Container Freight Stations land Container Depot and three Air Cargo Complexes, across the country. The CWC has 50 per cent of its stake with State Warehousing Corporations," the senior official from CWC said.

"The CWC provides scientific storage facilities for agricultural produce and other notified commodities with minimum charges. In addition to providing scientific storage facilities, the CWC also provides pest control scheme to merchants and exporters in competitive rates. The CWC has prepared the Storage Code Practice for over 200 commodities," he said.