AP's pvt container freight station to be ready by month-end

The first private sector container freight station (CFS) in Andhra Pradesh will be ready by end of this month at Vizag.

Vizag-based Sravan Shipping Services Pvt Ltd (SSSPL), which has been in the stevedore business for the last 12 years, is setting up the CFS in 10 acres of land near the Vizag port.

The CFS will be a state-of-the-art facility and can handle all types of cargo and containers.

"In developed countries, around 85 per cent of sea cargo has been containerised, but in India at present the containerised cargo is only 15 per cent. The volumes of containerised cargo are expected to go up and keeping the future needs at Vizag port in mind we are developing this CFS. The CFS will include 100 refrigerated container points, which can be used for handling perishable cargo," G Samba Siva Rao, managing director of Sravan Shipping Services Limited, told Business Standard.

After the privatisation of the container berth at the Vizag port, container cargo volumes are slowly picking up at the port.

Visakha Container Terminal Limited (VCTL), which has got a build-operate-transfer licence to operate the container terminal at Vizag port, has invested around Rs 100 crore to provide modern container handling equipment and has already attracted new container carry liners to Vizag port including main liner vessels.

"We have created 50,000 sq ft of covered godowns and 3 lakh sq ft of open stock yards and other facilities, apart from having the latest handling equipment. We are going to start operations in the next 15-20 days and our facilities can handle up to 10,000 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) per month. If demand increases, then we can add additional equipment," Samba Siva Rao said.

According to Vizag port and VCTL estimates, container cargo volumes will grow up between 500 and 800 per cent at Vizag port in the next six to seven years. During the last fiscal the port handled around 20,000 TEUs and this year VCTL is targeting to handle around 60,000 TEUs.

By end of 2005-06, this figure will touch 1,00,000 TEUs and by end of 2012 it will cross 2,00,000 TEUs mark, sources from VCTL said.

Container freight stations mainly do loading and unloading of containers, stocking of containers and customs clearance activity. At present, the Central Warehousing Corporation has been operating one CFS at the Vizag port area.

The state-owned Container Corporation of India Limited is also setting up one CFS at Vizag at an investment of around Rs 10 crore and this CFS will be ready by end of this fiscal.

This apart, the Vizag-based East India Petroleum Limited is also planning to set up a CFS in the city, for which it has an agreement with a Mumbai-based company, and will invest around Rs 10 crore in the CFS.