Container Corporation of India's (Concor) bid to send exports in containers by sea route to Bangladesh, it appears, has finally succeeded.
Early this month, Concor brought by train to Kolkata Dock System (KDS) a consignment of four 22-ft containers loaded with cotton yarn collected in Phillaur in Punjab for shipment to Bangladesh. At KDS, the consignments were unloaded from the 22-ft containers and reloaded into two 40-ft containers and the loaded boxes were put on Chittagong-bound, Mir Damad,' a 365-TEU vessel operated by the Seaways Shipping. An agreement to this effect was signed between the shipping line and Concor last month. The second shipment will take place shortly, it is learnt. Seaways, it is further learnt, has put one more vessel, Coastal Express' (capacity 224-TEUs), on the route. The Concor sources here hope that, subject to cargo inducement, it should be possible to handle three rakes of shipment a month.
Early this month, Concor brought by train to Kolkata Dock System (KDS) a consignment of four 22-ft containers loaded with cotton yarn collected in Phillaur in Punjab for shipment to Bangladesh. At KDS, the consignments were unloaded from the 22-ft containers and reloaded into two 40-ft containers and the loaded boxes were put on Chittagong-bound, Mir Damad,' a 365-TEU vessel operated by the Seaways Shipping. An agreement to this effect was signed between the shipping line and Concor last month. The second shipment will take place shortly, it is learnt. Seaways, it is further learnt, has put one more vessel, Coastal Express' (capacity 224-TEUs), on the route. The Concor sources here hope that, subject to cargo inducement, it should be possible to handle three rakes of shipment a month.
The trade stands to benefit from the greatly reduced transit time vis--vis the route via west coast ports with transhipment at Singapore. The voyage time between KDS and Chittagong port is only one day as compared to more than 10 days between a west coast port and Chittagong via Singapore. The train timing from Punjab to KDS is almost the same as that between Punjab to west coast ports. In September last year, Concor sent on experimental basis two containers of wheat by barges to Narayangunge, also in Bangladesh. But the move to operate the service on a regular basis did not succeed.
For quite some time, the trade with Bangladesh via the land route, particularly the Petrapole-Benapole route which accounts for the bulk of trade between the two countries via land route, has been in a bad shape for a variety of reasons. Concor's bid to send containerised exports to Bangladesh by sea, it is therefore felt, offers a cost-effective alternative.