The Hindu Business Line : CCT revises rail container movement procedures; transit time to be reduced

CHENNAI Container Terminal Ltd (CCT) has revised procedures for rail container movement to reduce transit time from Chennai to various inland container depots (ICDs), including Bangalore and Hyderabad, and vice versa.

At present it takes 7-9 days for a container to reach Bangalore from Chennai by rail. However, the revised procedure, effective January 1, is likely to reduce it to 4-5 days, according to Mr Ennarasu Karunesan, Chief Executive Officer, CCT, the private terminal operator of P&O Ports, UK.

Rail connectivity for import/export boxes at CCT is handled through Container Corporation of India (Concor) annexe at the Chennai port.

The current documentation processing system involves multiple handling of boxes both at the CCT container yard and at the annexe. These handling inefficiencies led to increase in transit time for boxes in-bound and out-bound from ICDs through CCT, he told Business Line. The new procedure will improve efficiencies in handling rail movement boxes, and thereby assist hinterland trade by improving the transit time of ICD boxes.

As per the revised procedure, all import boxes manifested for rail movement to the Bangalore or Hyderabad ICDs will be stacked vessel-wise in the CCT yard immediately upon discharge from the vessel. Further, the cut-off time for receipt of transhipment applications from steamer agents/shipping lines will be two Customs working day after sailing of the vessel.

In case the documents are not received within the cut-off time, a handling charge of Rs 645 for a TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) and Rs 968 for a FEU (forty foot equivalent unit) will be applicable, says a CCT trade notice.

For ICD exports, Concor will arrange to send line-wise break up of all boxes arriving on each rake as soon as the rake departs from the ICDs.

This information will be sent to all the line agents and to CCT at least 12 hours prior to the arrival of the rake at Concor Annexe-HOM, says the notice. Further, CCT will arrange to move all export boxes from Concor annexe into the CCT container yard immediately after arrival of the rake.

The export boxes will be moved directly into the vessel stack for which vessel nomination has been received. The responsibility of allowing boxes to be loaded on the nominated vessel rests with the shipping line, which will confirm the same to CCT through the vessel operator six hours prior to the completion of cargo work for that vessel, the notice says.

According to Mr Karunesan, the CCT had to revise the procedures to improve the terminal's efficiency and also attract more boxes from Bangalore. At present, about 6,000 boxes (both import and export) are for Bangalore market, he said.