Mundra Port, the flagship port of Adani Ports and Special Economic Port Ltd (APSEZ), will levy a double stack lock charges of Rs500 per double stacked wagon, inward or outward, from 1 February, the port operator owned by tycoon Gautam Adani said in a trade notice.
Mundra, India’s biggest commercial port as well as the nation’s largest container facility, is connected to the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor that allows it to run double stack container trains, resulting in faster evacuation of containers besides improving productivity and efficiency.
A double stack container train can carry 90 wagons.
APSEZ said it has been incurring substantial manpower costs to facilitate handling of twist locks on double stack container rakes operating to and from the port. The operation involves removal of twist locks from inbound double stack trains and placing the twist locks on second tier containers on outbound trains along with handling of twist lock inventory. These costs were not passed on to the customer.
“Starting 1 February, a nominal fee will be levied from the container train operators for providing double stack handling operations at APSEZ (rail) sidings,” APSEZ said in a customer advisory. The double stack lock charges will be Rs500 per double stacked wagon, inward or outward. This translates to Rs45,000 per rake, inward or outward.
“These charges have been introduced considering the operational expenses tied to this specific feature, aimed at ensuring the continued provision of high-quality services,” the operator added.