Container Freight Station made operational at Kandla Port

Kandla: Central Warehousing Corporation(CWC) said, a new Container Freight Station(CFS) at Kandla Port is operational from today. Harprit Singh, Managing Director of CWC congratulated JM Bakshi and Company for restarting container service at Kandla Port.

This will be the first bonded warehouse(a customs-controlled warehouse for the retention of imported goods until the duty owed is paid) by CWC according to Shri Rameshwar Nigam, Regional Manager of CWC. He said the CFS is spread over 3 acre area. New setup has been created for movement in covering CFS. Separate arrangements have been made for import, export and inflammable liquid. 40 mt Reach Stacker for handling, mobile fan, low mass for cliff, 10 trailers etc facilities are created here. 24 hours service will be available for trade here. Storage through scientific method, pest control etc are some other features of this setup. With container terminal operational here, shipping industry will not need to go at distance to Mundra and will be able to save Rs 5,000 on transportation cost. Warehousing space here is 10 times bigger. Time will be saved on stuffing and destuffing activities. Provision has been made here for direct port delivery in order to give more facility to traders.

Kandla Custom House Agent Association chief Hemchandra Yadav on this occasion sought competitive price structure at this new facility. Shipping industry representative Ramesh Bansal sought proper facilities like light, sanitary, canteen etc at this new facility.

Warehousing Corporation promised best service by well-trained officials and employees at this facility.

In a bid to boost container traffic, Kandla Port Trust had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Central Warehousing Corporation for development and running of a container freight station in year 2002 as per which Kandla Port had contributed a 14-hectare land outside custom-bounded area in Kandla to set up the proposed freight station. Central Warehousing had offered 36 per cent of its import-export trade as minimum guarantee.

Updates:

The new terminal is in operation now on 11 and 12 number jetties under public private partnership model(PPP). The new terminal is completely digital. It has lesser warehouse charge, transportation cost, railway fair and documentation charge compared to Mundra. Birthing schedule, tracking container vessel, electronics documentation etc facilities are available online in this terminal. The terminal is equipped with two rail mounted heavy crane, four rubber tire gantry crane, four reach stackers, forklifts etc. With this Kandla-Jebel ali-Damam-Jubail KDX service has kicked off. MoU were signed during opening ceremony between KICT and Container Shipping Qatar Navigation. As per this MoU, Qatar Navigation will operate weekly container vessel service between Saudi Arabia and Kandla. This is first such weekly service connecting Kandla to Jebel Ali port. With operation of this terminal, time and money spent on additional 150 km transportation to Mundra will be saved. Timber, oil, ceramic and salt industries will specifically benefit from this development.

DeshGujarat