Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) will soon have a state-of-the-art container terminal within Kolkata Dock System (KDS), railway minister Nitish Kumar announced here on Saturday.
The terminal will be built by the Container Corporation of India (Concor). KoPT has already set aside 50,000 square metre of land within KDS. The project will cost around Rs 10 crore and it would be ready within two years.
The move is aimed at increasing rail borne cargo at through KDS, especially container traffic. The share of containers in the total cargo basket of KoPT was on the rise, port sources said.
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In addition, a new rail terminal would be built at Shalimar on the west bank of the Hoogly river close to Howrah, at the cost of Rs 500 crore. This will be over and above the terminal proposed at Chitpur on the east bank of the river announced in the Railway Budget this year.
Kumar said Indian Railways was considering building an inland container depot (ICD) at Raxaul in north Bihar to facilitate movement of Nepal cargo.
Concor has started container train connecting Raxaul and Kolkata twice a week. Port sources said more ICDs would be connected by Concor in the future. Concor may also move cargo bound for Andamans once the terminal was in place.
KDS along with Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) have been wooing north Indian container traffic from places like Tughlaqabad and Kanpur. Shippers from these locations were sending cargo to Mumbai