Dubai-based Emirates Shipping Line (ESL) has announced a regular weekly mainliner service to Kochi, connecting South East Asia, China and the Middle East. MV Emirates Wasl, the first ship of the service arrived at the Kochi port on Monday and left today. M V Ville De Mars, carrying Panama flag, was the first mainliner that had called at Kochi in September 2006.Addressing the media, Vijay Minocha, managing director, Emirates Shipping Agencies (India), said that ESL would press into service six vessels for the new destination as the company considers Kochi as one of the most potential ports in South Asia. ESL started its operation in May 2006 by launching the line with a single service from India to the United States East Coast (USEC). It will connect major ports like Jebel Ali, Bandar Abbas, Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Sharjah, Riyadh, Bangkok, Jakarta, Rangoon, Chittagong, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo and Nhava Sheva. Apart from Kochi, the mainliner will berth only at Nhava Sheva port in the country. He said that the service would be advantageous for industries in Kerala and Tamil Nadu as the transit time of consignments would be reduced considerably. With no requirement for transshipment of containers, consignments from Kochi will reach the Shanghai port in 15 days. It would be a great relief for exporters of perishables such as marine products.While transit time to Singapore can be reduced to 5 days, it will take nine days to reach Hong Kong. Port like Dammam and Abu Dhabi can be reached in 7-8 days.In most cases, a mainliner takes double time on an average to reach its destination due to transhipment services.The ESL's mainliner service also happens to be the first connecting Northern China with India. The company expects the service to become a runaway success as each of its ships are of 3,000 TEUs capacity. ESL has opened offices in Hong Kong and Kochi.
