Indian box transporter Container Corporation of India’s eastern division is all set to conquer new cargo regions in plains and peaks on its side as it eyes strong cargo growth from jute, rice and steel. Kolkata will shape up to be the logistic hub for all trade and container cargo emanating from Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the seven north eastern states. “In the coming financial year, we expect more domestic movement of steel, sponge iron, pig iron and export cargo to pick up as well. There will be an uptick in the movement to other parts of Bengal from Kolkata and a 20 per cent jump in cargo movement to Tripura.” Equally, Concor is trying to coax a lot of road transport patrons on the other side of Kolkata to containerise and move their boxes by rail. Currently, Hindustan Lever,Nestle and few fast moving consumer good firms have their plants along the Indo-Bhutan border. It is this cargo that Concor is looking to move by rail.
Concor’s aim to look east have quite paid off for the transporter as the North Eastern region sees much grain movement with rice, pulses and wheat movement to the otherwise poorly connected regions of India. And as return cargo, most of the produce that comes mainly from Tripura and Assam is jute, beetle nut, bamboo and tea. “Tripura is a huge market and we are in talks with the Indian Railways to see how we can make use of their existing infrastructure to ply our trains and offload the containers.
We have requested access to three terminals,” Syed Abdul Rahman, IRTS, Senior General Manager of Concor Eastern region told MG. Although the Concor manager admits they’re a tad late in tapping Tripura’s potential, they have not yet missed the bus, he says. This have given them impetus to move deeper into the hinterland. And so, other regions that have sprung a surprise in offering boxes full of cargo are Bihar and Nepal. Concor expects pulses and food grain movement almost all through the year from Bihar except during the rainy season. From moving just four rakes a month in December, the rail transporter hopes to move up to eight rakes starting February. This would mean about 80 teu of food grain added to its kitty from Bihar. Much of this cargo, their manager says, shall be loaded from its terminal at Khatua.
Coming back to Bengal, with the West Bengal government focusing extensively on industrialisation across the state, many terminals at various locations could be converted to inland container depots or ICDs that boast of a custom inspection facility. Concor’s facility at Durgapur is one such where quite a few export boxes have emerged in the last few months prompting Concor to alter its strategy slightly to include regular services to this location. Most container shipping lines have asked for export containers to be shipped from Haldia as the Kolkata Port deals with import cargo mostly. Rice, sugar and steel have of late have been topping the list of exports from Haldia. Concor is also in talks with the Kolkata Port to allow for the vessels to be loaded from within the port. Currently, they get loaded from the Concor terminal close to the port.
A few other terminals in Odisha are getting ready to receive huge inflows of cargo. MMLPs at Jajpur, Muniguda will perhaps commence operations in the coming couple of years and the terminal at Balasore is being readied for customs clearance. In addition to developing multimodal logistics parks at Odisha, warehouses will also be set up in the state. These logistics hubs will ensure cargo from central India and various parts of Odisha are tapped for steel, iron ore, pyg iron being some of the key commodities contributing majorly to Concor’s revenue. “Logistics cannot be complete without warehousing. Concor will get in to setting up warehouses with GST coming up. It is going to be a major business. It will be a money spinner. Today at Kolkata Port there is a huge demand for space. Customers do not want warehouses. They just want some space where they can park their goods. With GST, there will be a huge demand for stock yards, automated, RFIDs and state-of-the-art facilities, with cold storage will soon become the norm,” Abdul Rahman said.
Cargo rise
With GST kicking in, the coming financial year is expected to be promising for Concor with both domestic and EXIM cargo increasing. Their senior manager says there could be an increase in domestic movement and exports of steel. Other goods moving within the country include iron ore, pyg iron, food grain, pulses and jute. “These will get a fillip as demand for movement will increase as these centres will have their own hubs. With large warehouses becoming possible, they will begin to transport in bulk and the hub and spoke model will be followed where the commodity will be distributed to the local markets. They will also look to serve three to four states. There can be a hub in Kolkata or Bihar and the entire North Eastern region can be catered too,” he augurs.
However, Concor’s bread and butter will still remain a handful of products namely steel and aluminum. Steel will continue to be the dominant cargo contributing by adding up to 50 per cent of all cargo moved. Jute follows next accounting for 40 per cent and food grains will add up to the rest. This mix could however be altered with the tilt moving in favour of food grains. Cement is another commodity that could get added to the current mix. While the Railways gets a major share of cement moved, cement getting bagged at various ports could be one of Concor’s additions in the coming year. Kolkata’s proximity to the steel hub of Odisha could ensure greater movement of iron ore as well. To ensure free movement of all cargo, Concor is also trying to ensure railway infrastructure is improved in the eastern region. RITES, the consulting agency for designing and implementing new projects, has been awarded a few projects to better traffic flow within the port on tracks. With these measures in places, Concor hopes to notch up its performance and contribute in larger measure to its parent. In the last financial year, Concor East finished fourth coming close behind the South Central region.
