Container Corp of India plans to develop 8 new container depots

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

28 Feb 2008

State-run Container Corp of India Ltd plans to develop eight container depots while other operators will develop 40 in the coming years, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said. "Presently 60 container depots are operational including three constructed by private parties," he told parliament in his budget speech. A Container Corp spokeswoman said the depots would be operational by the end of 2009/10."Six container depots will be ready by March 2009. The other two are expected by the end of calendar year 2009 or by the end of fiscal 2010," she said.Container Corp will invest 400 million rupees on an average on each depot, she said.Container Corp lost its monopoly on operating container trains in 2006, when the Indian Railways allowed 15 private operators to enter the business.To remain fighting fit, Container Corp will invest 30 billion rupees by 2012 to add more wagons, upgrade existing terminals and fund its joint ventures with transporters, Managing Director Rakesh Mehrotra told Reuters in an interview in December.Currently, Container Corp runs 146 trains while other operators run 44. "The number of trains run by other operators is expected to increase to 50-55 by the end of this year," the minister said.The total container traffic is expected to be 26 million tonnes in 2007/08 including 2 million tonnes contributed by new operators, he said.Shares of Container Corp closed 0.29 percent up at 1,720 rupees in the Mumbai market, which closed up 0.88 percent.