"Private operators cannot offer 11 daily trains from ICD TKD like us"

"Private operators cannot offer 11 daily trains from ICD TKD like us" - Anil K. Gupta, Chairman & MD, CONCOR

The market leader in India’s inland freight transportation, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) will complete 25 years of operations this November. Ahead of that, in an exclusive interview to The Dollar Business, its Chairman and Managing Director Anil K. Gupta talks about CONCOR’s evolution, upcoming projects and what’s happening at its flagship dry port, ICD Tughlakabad Purba Das | @TheDollarBiz

Anil K. Gupta, CMD, CONCOR

TDB: How has Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) evolved over the years? Anil K. Gupta (AKG): Container Corporation of India Ltd. (CONCOR) is a 25-year old organisation. It started functioning in 1989 and has developed a network of 63 terminals spread across the country. It is a now a Navaratna company of Government of India and is a pioneer and leader in the field of multimodal logistics in our country. TDB: How does an ICD facilitate EXIM trade? What are the tariff advantages for exporters and importers who use an ICD as compared to directly using a seaport? AKG: An ICD brings all the activities that are performed at the port right to the doorstep of customers. These include stuffing and de-stuffing of cargo, custom clearances of cargo and other related activities. All customers – both importers and exporters – derive a lot of benefits by using an ICD as all the activities are performed near their premises, which greatly helps them in the follow up procedures. TDB: What about your multimodal logistic parks business. What are its key offerings? AKG: Multimodal logistic parks consist of bonded area, domestic container handling area and facility for handling break-bulk cargo in Indian Railway wagons. There will also be warehouses and associated facilities for value addition of cargo. Exporters and importers shall be provided one-stop solution for all their logistic requirements at one place. TDB: CONCOR has witnessed a substantial increase in volumes last quarter. There was a growth of 15% in EXIM trade while volumes also grew by 18% on the domestic front. What according to you are the factors behind the rise in volumes? AKG: India’s exports have been rising in the last two quarters. Earlier, there was an imbalance between imports and exports. But with our exporters finding strong overseas demand, exports have risen considerably, which has led to the increase in the volume of cargo handled by CONCOR in the last quarter. Our export tariff is, in fact, lower as compared to our import tariff. This is to encourage exports as currently there is a heavy imbalance in favour of imports. TDB: Talking about growing EXIM trade, the WTO expects India’s trade to rise substantially in the current fiscal year. How does CONCOR plan to capitalise on this? AKG: We are already expanding capacities. During the 12th Five Year Plan, we plan to invest almost Rs.6,000 crore on facilities, wagons and other support services. This is a lot more than Rs.1,700 crore that we invested during the 11th Five Year Plan. So, you see it is a quantum jump for us and most of it is to increase capacity. For, if we want to grow at about 13% CAGR in the next five years, we will require more capacity. We have already planned and identified 15 new terminals that will be developed as multimodal logistic parks. Five of these will be on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). All these should be finalised during the 12th Five Year Plan period. TDB: Can you tell us about these locations? AKG: Currently, we are building a facility in Khatiwas, near Rewari, which is exactly on the border between Haryana and Rajasthan. This is a location on DFC and is extremely important for us. We have not only commenced work on it, but have also started operations simultaneously. It will be declared an ICD in another five months. We are also working on Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. The work there is almost over and we are hoping to start operations in February next year. Then, we have purchased land near Baroda in Gujarat. In fact, work there has already started. We are also developing facilities in Swaroopganj in Rajasthan and Vallarpadam in Kerala. At Vallarpadam, a hub port has been made by the government and DP World together. We are a joint venture partner in that too. There are other locations as well. TDB: Recently, Mumbai and Nhava Sheva Ship Agents Association (MANSA) sent a letter to CONCOR complaining about the import backlog at JNPT. Can you give us the reasons behind this backlog? AKG: The reason for the backlog is a very heavy inflow of imports in the last 30 days. However, the issue was not only for CONCOR but for everyone who is in the business. It is being cleared and we are making arrangements to ease the situation. TDB: With private players now entering the segment, how prepared are you to offset competition? AKG: Our market share had gone down from 78% to 72% some time back. But we are back to 77% now. We are already fighting competition. CONCOR has primarily three roles – we are carriers, terminal operators and warehouse operators. The company has a network of 63 terminals spread across the length and breadth of the country, a strong fleet of over 240 high speed rakes, state-of-the-art handling equipment, robust IT network and highly skilled manpower. We run 11 trains from ICD TKD on a daily basis, so an importer or exporter knows that his goods will reach the desired destination within that day itself. While, on the other hand, a private operator will not be in a position to offer more than two trains a week. Customers can see this difference. In terms of price incentives, we have volume discount schemes, which work well with our users. This makes us the first choice of customers. TDB: You say you run 11 trains a day. But MANSA feels it is not sufficient and have requested you to deploy more trains on the route. What’s your take on this? AKG: We have to understand that one cannot expect us to stop our services to all other ports and divert all our trains to Nhava Sheva. I do understand that Nhava Sheva handles 10,000 TEUs daily but so does Mundra Port, which handles over 6,000 TEUs. We have to look after every port we cater to and then do our calculations as to how many trains should be deployed on which route. TDB: ICD TKD is choc-o-block with traffic all the time. What measures are you taking to deal with this? AKG: ICD TKD is our flagship ICD and, like any other depot, has a design capacity. I agree that ICD TKD is clogged at all times. So, we are actually trying to restrict traffic there for the last seven years. ICD TKD is actually handling nearly 4,50,000 TEUs annually. We tell our customers to book at ICD Dadri instead of ICD TKD if they don’t have a factory in Delhi. And just to handle the rising traffic, we have opened dry ports in almost every possible place. TDB: A lot of importers and exporters have complaints regarding the train schedule. They say that they are not made aware of advance schedules of trains. What do you have to say about this? AKG: All our information is available online and we have a SMS facility for our customers too. Besides, customers can go online and just feed in their tracking number to know where exactly their consignment is at that moment. We have a transparent system and shipping lines have access to our terminals. TDB: A lot of the users have also complained about cargo loss and pilferage. What measures have CONCOR taken to address this issue? AKG: There was an unfortunate accident at ICD TKD when a fire broke at the facility, damaging a lot of properties. But measures have already been taken and we hope that such accidents will be prevented. As far as pilferage is concerned, we have CISF personnel deployed in the custom bonded area so I believe cases of cargo loss is also history.

"Private operators cannot offer 11 daily trains from ICD TKD like us" - Anil K. Gupta, Chairman & MD, CONCOR

you may also like...

We like you just the way you are.