CHENNAI: The Southern region of the Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR) is set to post an impressive growth in the current financial year.

The region with jurisdiction over Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Pondicherry registered a growth of 17 per cent in exports and 11 per cent in domestic traffic till December compared with the same period last year.

It handled 1.62 lakh boxes against 1.37 lakh boxes during the same period last year.

With the heavy traffic season round the corner, the region will try to meet the target of 2.38 lakh boxes for the current year, according to Sanjeeb Halder, Chief General Manager, Southern Region.

He said the traffic in the region would boom once the second container terminal came into operation at the Chennai port. Though there was potential for more traffic, there was not enough space at the port.

There had been some in-built delay in loading and unloading the containers at the port; the region could move only a rake a day.

For example, a container from Singapore took five days to reach Chennai, while 10 more days were needed for transporting it from the port to Whitefield in Bangalore.

He hoped that after the inauguration of the second container terminal, the time delay could be reduced to a considerable extent.

Better services

Despite various constraints, he said, CONCOR was providing better service than other players. CONCOR had the advantage of moving containers in bulk, whereas private parties normally moved containers by road.

For exporters, CONCOR was providing many facilities, including warehousing, container parking and repair. As a container freight station operator, CONCOR offered air cargo clearance, bonded warehousing and transit warehousing facilities to exporters and importers.

Mr. Sanjeeb Halder said that in Tamil Nadu, CONCOR had terminals at the Chennai port and Tondiarpet, Irgur (Coimbatore), Tirupur, Koodalnagar (Madurai), Salem and Meelavattan (Ttuticorin).

Chennai was both a domestic and international terminal, while the Tirupur, Irgur and Tuticorin terminals were international. Madurai and Salem were domestic container terminals.

Though the zone was ready to handle domestic traffic at Tuticorin, not much inland traffic generated from there. Exporters of Tirupur and Coimbatore chose to bring their empty boxes from Tuticorin and Cochin by road, though there was a good rail network.

They depended on customs house agents who provided a package of facilities, including transhipment of boxes.

Multi-modal transportation

As part of a strategy to increase the market share, CONCOR would consider providing multi-modal transportation and logistics consultancy services to its potential users.

These could be shippers or intermediate agencies, such as shipping lines, forwarding agents or terminal operators. Even government bodies, private trade associations and chambers of commerce might be targeted as potential clients.

The aim was to provide maximum services through whatever means possible, he said.

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