The public sector undertaking, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), is setting up its second container freight station (CFS) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) near Mumbai.
CIDCO has already allotted land to CWC and the payment will be made shortly. The cost of acquiring the land works out to about Rs 30 crore. Another Rs 30-40 crore will be pumped into the construction of the CFS which is expected to be ready in about 18 months. The CFS is also likely to function as a customs bonded warehouse.
CWC already owns a CFS at Dronagiri node near JNP which handles export containers. It also manages the CFS owned by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust which handles import containers. Besides, it owns a custom bonded warehouse at Kalamboli, 22kms from JNP. CWC is going in for this additional container freight station keeping in view the expected increase in cargo at JNP.
It will be situated only 1.5 kms away from the Dronagiri node CFS and will be able to handle about 10,000 TEUs of containers per month, according to J V Bendre, regional manager, CWC. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port has vast acres of land at its disposal which would facilitate the setting up of more container freight stations.
CWC currently operates 14 container freight stations and inland clearance depots (ICDs) situated all over the country. Containers are destuffed and stuffed at ICDs and CFSs. Besides, customs examination facilities are also provided at these points. Some of the CFSs and ICDs are located at Adalaj, Mumbai, Calcutta, Navi Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi.
The company is planning to inaugurate five more by the end of March. These are to be located at Varanasi, Nasik, Udaipur, Kota and New Mangalore.
CWC has also received the inter-ministerial committee's (IMC) clearance for setting up more such facilities at Raipur, Haldia, Saharanpur, Allahabad, Siliguri, Paradip and Waluj. Proposals to start additional CFSs at Tuticorin, Rajkot, Goa and Ludhiana are awaiting IMC clearance. CWC's plans include the setting up of cold storages at Agartala, Vizag, Hazipur, Calcutta and Bangalore. Plans are afoot to set up a container storage yard at Petropol on the Indo-Bangladesh border and a container-cum-truck storage yard at Hyderabad.
The entire expansion will be funded through internal accruals, according to Bendre. CWC made a net profit of Rs 61 crore in 1995-96. However, figures regarding turnover and internal accruals were not immediately available. CWC currently runs a chain of 1800 warehouses, ICDs, CFSs and air cargo complexes.
