The Hindu Business Line : Concor move to make Balasore ICD operational — To stuff 50 boxes with calcined petroleum coke for Chennai

IN its bid to make the Balasore inland container depot (ICD) operational, Container Corporation of India (Concor) has placed a rake of 50 empties at the doors of the ICD. The empties will be stuffed with calcined petroleum coke, imported through the Paradip port, for despatches to Chennai.

The consignments have been moved by road from Paradip to Balasore for onward movement by rail-borne containers.

The Balasore ICD remains a non-starter ever since its construction was completed nearly three years ago at a cost of several crores of rupees.

Initially, Concor was embroiled in a legal dispute over gaining an access to the ICD. Subsequently, the dispute was settled but the traffic never materialised, a problem whose solution is still eluding Concor. It is yet to handle a single container either for domestic or for international trade.

Perhaps, the choice of Balasore as the location for an ICD, as Concor sources feel, was not correct. The projected traffic from the industrial units located in and around Balasore never showed up. Concor thus was saddled with an idle investment.

The present bid to move calcined petro coke is on a trial basis. Depending on the market response, the follow-up steps will be taken.

Meanwhile, Concor is also finding it hard to generate international traffic for its ICD located at Jamshedpur. This is because the Customs authorities are yet to heed the Concor's plea for facilities needed for processing shipping bills at the ICD itself.

In the absence of such facilities, the exporters would not feel encouraged to use the ICD as they would not be able to avail themselves of the benefits under the DEPB and other schemes.

As a result, the major exporters such as Tata Steel and others are now having their containers stuffed and the shipping bills processed at the Haldia dock. The Jamshedpur ICD thus caters only to the domestic traffic at the rate of 400 TEUs a month on an average, mostly on Tata Steel account.

Once the processing of shipping bills is permitted at the ICD itself, the throughput of the ICD, it is estimated, will be up by at least 500 TEUs a month on an average.

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