Private freight firms dent Concor's traffic growth

At the beginning of the current financial year, state-owned Container Corporation of India (Concor) had set the annual traffic growth target at 17 per cent.

The economy was booming and it had the country's entire container rail route to itself. But the initial figures suggest the target may now be difficult to achieve.

During April-June this year, Concor's container traffic grew only 11.7 per cent. Nothing has changed except there are now five private freight operators nibbling into Concor's market share.

Of the 14 companies licensed to operate container freight trains, five "� Rajeev Chandrasekhar's Hindustan Transportation Infrastructure Ltd, Boxtrans Logistics, Central Warehousing Corporation, Hind Terminals, and Pipavav Rail Corporation Ltd "� have started operations.

These companies are free to fix their tariffs. Though it was expected that they would offer more competitive rates than Concor, it transpires they are offering the same tariff. What has helped them divert traffic from Concor is lesser turnaround time. These companies have cut the time on routes like Mumbai-Delhi, Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Visakhapatnam and others, by almost half.

Concor Managing Director Rakesh Mehrotra seemed unperturbed and downplayed this by saying these were "minor dents" and the company was largely unaffected by the arrival of new players.

However, he admitted that turnaround time of trains was an issue and the company could counter this "through innovative ideas", which the company was constantly developing.

When the railway ministry last year opened the container train segment for private sector, it had kept a condition that the players would have to have their own trains, rakes and inland container depots (ICDs). As Concor has its own train services and a network of 58 ICDs throughout the country, it enjoys a healthy lead over the new players.

But all of this is set to change soon. Adani Logistics Ltd is planning to open 12 ICDs in the next two-and-a-half years. The company will invest Rs 1,300 crore for setting up its infrastructure.

Hindustan Infrastructure Transportation has got the government's nod to run a train between Samalkha in Haryana to Kandla in Gujarat and Mumbai. The train will cater to exporters in the industrial towns of Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. This could dent Concor's numbers further.