The shorter wagon has enabled 45 of them being accommodated in a trainagainst the earlier 40, increasing the throughput by 12.5 per cent. Tenrakes have so far been pressed into service on the high-density TKD-JNPTroute. While the Delhi-Mumbai sector accounts for 60 per cent of therevenues, better handling facilities and quicker turnaround offered by JNPThas made this a premier destination choice. In fact a new private sectoroperator viz, the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal has earnedthe reportedly unique distinction of unloading and back-loading a 45-wagonrake in 45 minutes flat.

Though traffic at all ports has registered a modest 2 per cent growth, JNPTsaw its traffic grow by 38 per cent and CONCOR is pulling out all stops tocater to this sector, including increasing the number of trains from thepresent level of six to eight by 2000 and 11 by 2004. Being directlyconnected by regular services to Mumbai, containers from Delhi, Ludhiana,Moradabad, Nagpur, Hyderabad, and Bangalore are likely to see a spurt ingrowth with `liner' specials being run to a time-table in the very nearfuture.

Offering an extremely competitive rate of Rs 11,800 per TEU (twenty-footequated unit) for a loaded and Rs 7,800 for an empty container CONCORappears to be in a commanding position to mop up any new business in yearsto come on the high-volume Delhi-Mumbai sector. `Reefers' or refrigeratedcontainers have proved to be a boon for exporting perishables and withspecial arrangements for keeping them powered on the run CONCOR has earnedfor itself a substantial piece of the this rather lucrative cake.

Railways are cost-effective but poor in customer relations while the roadtransporter though highly efficient has of late become increasinglyexpensive and subject to vagaries of its militant drivers and as a resultthe harassed customer is now finding CONCOR as a `third' alternative.CONCOR's unique strength of a seamless service traversing all over its64,000-km network is now being increasingly appreciated by the businesscommunity who find a host of excise and other levies crossing stateboundaries as hidden costs being added onto the trucker's operating charges.

It is now poised to act as a vital land bridge for world-class shippingcompanies, connecting Mumbai to Calcutta on one side and to Chennai on theother.

Last year alone CONCOR moved 802,000 TEUs which included about 576,000 TEUscarrying export goods, and the year 1999-2000 is expected to see a healthy10-per cent growth if the economy does not fold up in the meantime. With thesetting up of the proposed $28.5 World Bank-assisted ICDs at Bhairhawa,Birgunj, and Biratnagar, connected to the Indian Railway system by a short5.4 km stretch from Raxaul to Birganj, nearly 40,000 TEUs are expected tomove to and from the Calcutta/Paradip complex.

Thirteen of the major US railroads which form the AAR (Association ofAmerican Railroads) in 1997-98 moved 8.8 million containers cars andtrailers, most of it as a vital land bridge connecting the east and westcoasts. In fact every new inter-modal train carrying containers doublestacked on flat cars ends up removing as many as 280 trucks from thehighways, making them a much safer place for cars and other passengervehicles which apart from helping in decongesting highways also eliminatesthe pressure to build new ones. In the case of CONCOR, 90 trucks wouldremain off the road with every train it runs, not only saving precious fuelbut also reducing pollution and chances of road accidents.

This has been established to a very large extent on the west coast with theintroduction of RO-RO (Roll On and Roll Off) special trains of flat wagonscarrying the container along with the truck chassis and the driver in it,also popularly known in the US as piggy-back service. This is somewhatpossible on the recently commissioned Konkan Railway Corporation which.

Setting up a state-of-art integrated computerised information network acrossthe country to keep the customer posted of the location of his cargo at anymoment is one of the major inputs organised by CONCOR in its efforts to giveefficient and effective service. Though its shares fetched Rs 250 in a majordisinvestment exercise carried out last year, with the government now owningonly 63 per cent of equity, the shares have shot up now to Rs 350. With aturnover of about Rs 700 and profits in the region of Rs 141 crore earnedlast year CONCOR has carved for itself a niche in the multimodal business,helping in no small way in the growth of the national economy.

The author is a former Railway Board member.