The Hindu : Front Page : New container facility for Tuticorin port

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 03, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

New container facility for Tuticorin port

R. Vimal Kumar

Tuticorin: The container storage and handling facilities in Tuticorin are set to get a boost with the setting up of an empty container yard (ECY) and a container freight station (CFS) on a 20-acre plot near the port by Chennai-based Sical Distriparks Limited during the current fiscal.

The project is estimated to cost Rs.25 crore.

Company sources said that the ECY would have facilities for repair, storage and maintenance of 7,500 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units ) of containers a month against the expected ‘empty repositioning’ potential of 5,000 TEUs constituting 33 per cent of the market requirement here.

The proposed CFS can handle 30,000 TEUs of containers in a year by 2009-2010. The station will provide transit facilities with public authority status equipped with services for handling and temporary storage of import/export laden and empty containers carried under the control of Customs. Trans-shipment of cargo will also take place from the station.

With this, the SPIC group company plans to increase its market share to 15 percent of the total volume of containers handled at the Tuticorin port.

The company has plans to set up CFS’s in Mumbai and Pipavav (Gujarat) and an inland container depot in Bangalore. These will become operational in 2009-10.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page