Sci To Start Cal-Colombo Feeder Service
The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will soon formally inaugurate feeder operations on the Calcutta-Colombo sector.
According to an SCI official, the new feeder vessel, Maria Shulte, would ply from either Calcutta or Haldia for transhipment of tea containers to Colombo.
At present, Shipping Corporation of India operates by way of slot chartering arrangements in carriers shuttling between Calcutta and Colombo. The new feeder service would be run in partnership with Integrated Container Feeder Services (ICFS).
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The new vessel was under construction at a Chinese shipyard, and would be probably delivered to SCI next month. Shipping Corporation had stopped the Calcutta-Colombo feeder route way back in 1989.
However, the union surface transport minister, T G Venkatraman, had recently indicated during the opening of the Chennai-Colombo sector that the Calcutta-Colombo service would also be re-opened shortly.
As per the arrangement, SCI would control 40 per cent of the slots and rest 60 per cent would be managed by Integrated Container Feeder Services.