Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR) flagged off its first container train with ceramic tiles and other commodities from the Morbi-Rajkot region on September 5, 2018, post its agreement with Shiv Carriers Roadways Pvt. Ltd (SCRPL) for exclusive containerised operations at the Sukhpur Private Freight Terminal (PFT) near the Morbi-Maliya belt on the Gandhidham-Viramgam rail network in Gujarat.
The train was flagged off by Mr Parsotambhai Sabariya, MLA, Dhrangadhra, Mr Brijeshbhai Merja, MLA, Morbi, and Mr Dinesh Kumar, Divisional Railway Manager, Ahmedabad Division. The train left for Shalimar, Kolkata with 90 containers loaded with ceramic tiles and other goods from the region.
Mr Pranai Prabhakar, CGM, CONCOR, said CONCOR will initially run services to destinations such as Shalimar (Kolkata), Kanpur, Patna, Amingaon (Guwahati), Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc. at attractive rates. He added that this is the 80th terminal of CONCOR’s operations in the country. The facility will strategically help the trade to reduce its first-leg road connectivity cost and provide a huge advantage through economical rail movement. The terminal will consolidate road-based piecemeal traffic and move them by rail at one go. Loading of containers for other destinations will be started as per the demand of the trade/industry in the region, he said.
Mr Dinesh Kumar said that domestic container services from Sukhpur present a cost-effective opportunity at the doorstep of the trade and business of the area. The ceramic industry of Morbi and the salt industry of Maliya would be the prime beneficiaries of this CONCOR-SCRPL pact, he added.
Mr Avdhesh Chaudhary, Managing Director of SCRPL, thanked the railway officers, MLAs, CONCOR, the Sukhpur Village Sarpanch, and all others who supported the development of the terminal.
Sukhpur Rail Terminal is approximately 50 km from Morbi and 40 km from Maliya. It is spread across an area of over 1.5 lakh sq. m, has state-of-the-art infrastructure like concrete paved yard measuring 15,000 sq. m for container stacking and handling along with 2 full-length rail lines, modern container and cargo handling equipment, huge transport fleet, administrative and user buildings, round-the-clock CCTV surveillance, etc.
