Border truck hub to be expanded

The Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) will expand its activities in West Bengal by doubling the capacity of the truck terminal in Petrapol land customs stations in North 24-Parganas on the Indo-Bangladesh border.

CWC has also submitted a proposal to the Union commerce ministry for setting up a second land customs station in West Bengal, the regional manager of CWC, Manju Verma, said at the sidelines of a seminar on logistics at the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Verma said CWC had sought land from the state government for doubling the capacity of the truck terminal at Petrapol.

The capacity of the truck terminal was around 700 trucks now. CWC was keen to raise it to 1,600 trucks.

It will also set up an additional warehouse in Bongaon on the Bangladesh border.

"Most of the time CWC cannot accommodate all the trucks crossing to Bangladesh through the land customs stations as business is growing fast there," the CWC regional manager said.

The feasibility study for a second land customs station and the related proposal were now with the commerce ministry," she added.

Verma said CWC would set up 22 rail warehousing complex in next 4-5 years to control logistics better and reduce turnaround time.

The general manager of South Eastern Railway said SER would increase the number of goods trains.

SER handled 14 million ton rail borne traffic in 2003-04 at Haldia and traffic was expected to grow to 25 million ton at Haldia by 2007-08.