The Ministry of Railways has issued policy guidelines for setting up exclusive container rail terminals on Indian Railways land to boost container traffic.
For accessing the terminal, an access charge of Rs80,000 per train will be levied for loaded in-empty out, empty in-loaded out and loaded in-loaded out, according to the guidelines.
The container storage charges at the terminals have been set at Rs35 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) per day while the charges for a forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU) will be twice that of a TEU.
The container storage charges for a container will start from the time the container arrives at the terminal (for outward movement) and after the expiry of free time for unloading (for inward consignment). The container storage charges will be doubled if a container is not removed from the terminal after 12 days.
There will not be any free time for stacking of containers at the terminals.
Wharfage/ground usage charge will not be levied at the terminals.
The total free time at the terminals for loading/unloading and stuffing/destuffing of containers on a container train will be nine hours irrespective of the activities done on the rake.
Detention/demurrage charges will be levied per the existing policy guidelines in this regard.
Hub and spoke operations will be allowed for such terminals with five days for hubbing operations. All other applicable charges for container traffic such as development surcharge , detention charge and busy season charge will be applicable per prevailing guidelines.
The zonal railways may declare an existing goods shed/any new terminal to be opened for handling container traffic exclusively.
“These terminals are being planned to promote domestic container traffic. However, Zone, if found justified, may declare these terminals open for other traffic without impacting the handling of container traffic,” according to the policy guidelines.
The Ministry of Railways have identified 23 locations for setting up exclusive container rail terminals at Desur, Visakhapatnam (CFCV), Chinchwad, Miraj, Ratlam, Rourkela, Rewari, Ballabhgarh, Madhosingh, Nagpur, Bhusawal, Tata Nagar, Raipur, DCT Okhla, ICD Mulund, Tondiarpet, ICD TKD, Bhardreshwar Ghat, Dhanakya, Deshnoke, Mettur Dam, Salem Market and Mandalgarh.
(source: ET Infra)