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Concor: Working towards efficiency

Santanu Sanyal

EVER SINCE the Container Corporation of India (Concor) started operations in the eastern region to handle containers for domestic movement, it has been encountering a major problem -- a mismatch between the supply of and demand for containers, t he supply exceeding the demand.

There was hardly any demand for boxes to move goods out of the eastern region. As a result, the bulk of the loaded containers that arrived in the region had to be sent back as empties. This was presumably because the goods moving out of the easte rn region were transported mainly by trucks and lorries, rarely by railway containers.

It was not that the goods were not amenable to containerisation. For example, the major commodity moved out of Calcutta was jute, which could be sent by railway containers. But that did not happen because of several factors, such as the lack of awareness among traders on the benefits of containerised movement of goods, even at a slightly higher cost, the virtual free-for-all in the totally unorganised road transport sector, where severe undercutting of rates and excessive overloading of vehicles go side by side and, finally, the absence of the cargo aggregation system in Concor.

The absence of cargo aggregation prevents Concor from accepting piecemeal cargo -- that is, one or two or even five containers. Concor generally insists on a full rake, which is a minimum of 60 boxes.

The mismatch affected the freight market. As in the case of road freight, Concor's freight charges are higher on the Chennai-Calcutta or Delhi-Calcutta routes than those on the Calcutta-Chennai or Calcutta-Delhi routes. The mismatch perhaps could have be en corrected only by generating enough cargo for the services emanating from the eastern region through proper marketing. But Concor's marketing to promote the use of containers for domestic movement left much to be desired.

Not any more. Last year, the utilisation of empties was 50 per cent. In 1999-2000, Concor's original loading of containers in the eastern region for domestic movement was 14,875 TEUs. In other words, nearly 30,000 loaded containers arrived in the region from other regions during the period.

The situation has improved considerably this financial year. Thus, in first four months of this fiscal, the utilisation level was 75 per cent, on an average. In July alone, the figure was 95 per cent. At this rate, Concor, it is hoped, should be able to ensure full utilisation of empties available in the region.

One might wonder what the secret of this success is. Concor sources say that the customer base has to be expanded by offering competitive rates and improved services. One must remember that Concor has greater flexibility in fixing tariffs than its parent organisation, the Indian Railways.

In several other respects also, Concor enjoys greater freedom than IR. For example, IR offers only point-to-point service, that is between two railway goods sheds, while Concor's service is door-to-door.

In fact, Concor is planning a survey to identify the items currently moving out of the eastern region by roadways so that they could be brought back to its own fold. But mere identification of items is not enough. It has to be matched by proper services.

Fortunately, a beginning has been made to offer improved services, the sources point out. Thus, Contrack, the scheduled container freight train, has been launched between Calcutta and Chennai, and Calcutta and Delhi. In fact, large volumes of jute goods are being moved by railway containers to the western and southern regions where sugar mills need these bags for packaging. Foodgrains dealers of the northern region too need jute bags in large volumes for the same purpose. In addition, cast iron goods ar e also transported in Concor's containers from the East to other regions.

The commissioning of Haldia Petrochemicals and the Mitsubishi PTA plant, also located at Haldia, holds out promise that large volumes of chemicals cargo could be moved by railway containers, it is felt. In fact, Hindustan Lever Ltd's chemicals plant at H aldia, too, is believed to be already using the Contrack service for movement of its materials to the southern region. Mitsubishi is believed to have enquired about probable Concor support for moving about 1,500 tonnes of PTA in containers to Nagpur.

In fact, subject to cargo inducement, it should be possible for Concor to have at Haldia a big base, complete with an ICD and other facilities. Depending on the cargo support, it should also be possible to launch Contrack services from Haldia to differen t locations in the North, West and South.

The Contrack service to Chennai in partnership with the South Eastern, South Central and Southern Railways has proved a success because the transit time has been reduced to 55 hours from 64 hours. This is not surprising because Contrack offers inter-city services marked by fixed-day departures, fast and assured transit times.

There has also been technological upgradation of rakes. Thus, old vacuum rakes are being gradually replaced by air-pressure rakes, which are faster and less prone to problems such as detachment.

In the eastern region, Concor runs only one ICD, at Amingaon, near Guwahati, almost exclusively for handling tea exports. Hardly any domestic container is handled at Amingaon. As a result, the ICD operates part of the year -- only during the tea shipm ent season. Concor's domestic containers are handled at the Cossipore port side container terminal (PSCT) under Eastern Railway and Shalimar yard under the South Eastern Railway.

Domestic containers are also handled at several non-Concor points at Visakhapatnam, Bilaspur and Guwahati. At none of these places has Concor any facility. But it is in a position to place containers for loading, depending on the cargo support.

Cossipore PSCT is being developed into a full-fledged ICD to handle both exports and imports mainly through Haldia. There is a proposal to have a PSCT near the Dankuni-Janai Road area in West Bengal, mainly to handle domestic containers. This is because the existing PSCTs, it is felt, will be hard put to it to handle the projected increase in the domestic traffic.

But then, it will be rash to claim that Concor is only concentrating on domestic traffic. The proposed ICD at Jamshedpur (Bihar) and Balasore (Orissa) are expected to take care of both domestic and international traffic (exports and imports). While Conco r should not worry too much about the probable cargo support for the proposed Jamshedpur ICD (home to several big industrial units, including Tata Steel), the same may not necessarily be true about the proposed ICD at Balasore. Let us hope the Orissa Gov ernment, keen to see the first-of-its-kind ICD coming up at Balasore, will do the needful to ensure flow of adequate traffic through it.