To ease the problems being faced by the trade in evacuating containers from the newly commissioned Vallarpadam Terminal, Container Corporation of India (Concor) is coming up with a new service to move cargo from the ICTT to Kochi port's CFS at Willingdon Island by rail.
The service will be connected from the ICTT at Vallarpadam to Edappally and from there to Willingdon Island where the port's CFS is located. The officials at DP World said that the service will commence shortly as the parties are working the movement plan with respective lines.
Around 90 TEUs can be evacuated from the terminal in a single move, which is an additional way of evacuating boxes, and, thereby, reducing the congestion on roads.
A decision to this effect was taken following the request from Kochi Port and the DP World for the benefit of the trade in order to reduce the logistical cost. The rates for moving containers will be fixed at Rs 3,850 for TEUs and Rs 6,000 for FEUs, He pointed out that the commencement of this service would be an additional benefit to the trade in the evacuation of containers, as it would help the trade to move the cargo to the southern part of Kerala from Willingdon Island faster.
Earlier, there was no such provision to move cargo from Vallarpadam to Willingdon Island by rail and the trade had to depend the congested roads in the city, which has resulted in high cost and time delay. Besides, the shortage of drivers for container trailers had also added to the woes of trailer operators in clearing the cargo.
The DP World official said that the terminal is also exploring various options for evacuation of containers once the operations comes in full swing. The potential usage of inland water transportation mode can also be utilised fully in evacuating containers from the terminal to various destinations in the State.
The port management had also augmented its CFS and pre-stage facility to support the ICTT operations. To control processing time for export containers before shipment through the ICTT, the port had commenced pre-processing facility (the pre-stage) in its Ernakulam Wharf, providing single window processing for facilitating customs clearance for export containers from the domestic area. The pre-stage also provides clearance for the containers imported through ICTT.