In a move to enhance the New Mangalore Port Authority’s (NMPA) capability to serve the growing EXIM container traffic in the hinterland, the NMPA has signed a memorandum of understanding with Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Sagarmala Development Company Limited (SDCL) to develop a Container Freight Station (CFS)-cum-warehousing facility at NMPA through a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
The project is expected to be completed by June 2025, said NMPA Chairman Venkata Ramana Akkaraju, after signing the MoU with CWC MD Amit Kumar Singh and SDCL MD Dilip Kumar Gupta.
The CFS-cum-warehouse is proposed to be developed on 16.6 acres of port land at an estimated cost of Rs 125.42 crore. The contribution of the NMPA will be the cost of the land offered for the project, which comes to around Rs 44.25 crore, while the remaining amount will be comtributed equally by SDCL and CWC.
The NMPA Chairman said that NMPA has handled 1.65 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) during 2022-23 despite not having all-weather road conditions connecting the port. The port mulls over handling 1.85 lakh to 2 lakh containers during 2023-24 and 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh containers by 2024-25. The cargo and vessel related charges at NMP are competitive and economical when compared to the neighbouring major ports.
The dedicated container terminal developed by the port on PPP mode has seen phenomenal growth of 8.5 per cent in one year while handling only Full Container Load (FCL) cargo. The CFS will facilitate aggregation of Less than Container Load (LCL) cargo in addition to further growth of FCL containers.
The proposed CFS will be useful for small exporters as well as agri product exporters who require adequate temperature-controlled storage for aggregation and handling facilities for stuffing of containerized cargo. The envisaged facility will directly reduce the container dwell time for both import and export containers.
To a query on road connectivity, the Chairman said, “By February 2024, we expect the Ghat road to be an all-weather road catering to improved movement of the cargo to the port.”
Amit Kumar Singh said that the CWC has CFSs at 21 locations in the country catering to the global standard. The CWC is working on bringing down the logistics cost and provide facilities at par with international standards.
Dilip Kumar Gupta said the CFS-cum-warehousing station will have weather, temperature and gas-controlled facilities to cater to all types of goods. As soon as the SPV is formed, the first warehouse will be built for the Coffee Board.
Speaking on the facility that will come up, Nagaraj Shetty of Ganesh Shipping said, “It should have a multi- purpose facility to cater to general goods as well. In addition, it should have a custom-bonded warehouse facility," and also stressed the need for cold storage. "Once all the facilities are ensured then cargo from South Goa to North Kerala can be diverted to NMP,” he said.
Shekhar Poojary of Association of New Mangalore Port Stevedores said that the facility will help more cargo to reach the port. Further, Mangaluru will have two CFS with the government giving permission for Mangaluru-based Delta Infralogistics (Worldwide) Ltd to set up a CFS facility.
NMP Users Association members said that the facility will boost LCL cargo operators who were depending on Bengaluru and Kochi in the past.