Work on the proposed greenfield project for an inland container yard by Container Corporation of India Ltd. (Concor) at Kadakola, between Mysuru and Nanjangud, is expected to take off in due course.
Tenders were finalised and the work awarded to a private firm on July 30. “We expect the work to commence in 15 days. The time frame for its completion is 24 months,” said Anup Dayanand Sadhu, group general manager of Concor. The authorities plan to have a low-key ground-breaking ceremony in two weeks time.
The project is expected to cost ₹92 crore (including land cost) and will include warehouse facility, bonded warehouse – a secured facility managed by the customs that will facilitate importers to store the cargo till payment of customs duty.
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“This will be the third container yard in Karnataka by Concor after Whitefield and Mangaluru, but the latter does not have a warehouse but has only rail sidings, whereas the one at Kadakola will be a full-fledged facility” Mr. Dayanand told
Once completed, it will provide a single-window facility for export units to complete all customs formalities. Stakeholders say it will give a boost to export-import traffic and help local manufacturers save on transportation cost by 25% or more, while reducing the cost of finished products. It is reckoned that not less than two rakes of container traffic is generated a week in Mysuru and surrounding industrial areas, which are transported by road to the Concor terminal at Whitefield, from where they are moved to the port of departure. “But once the container facility at Kadakola is ready, it will provide direct connectivity from yard to port for export and import.”
In the absence of a container facility, manufacturers at present use roadways to transport merchandise and finished products. The container yard has been a long-pending demand for nearly 20 years.
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Plot problem?
While work on the facilities for Concor’s inland container yard will commence in due course, stakeholders are worried about the delay in handing over a plot critical to the completion of the project.
Though the bulk of the 55 acres of land has been handed over by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board to Concor, a plot of 6.5 acres has not been transferred. “The 6.5 acres is the spot from where the railway line has to take off to join the main line, and [it] is critical to the completion of the project,” admitted Mr. Sadhu.
However, the time frame for the completion of the Concor warehouse and other facilities is 24 months, by which time the authorities can be expected to transfer the land, he added.
S. Yogendra, a railway activist and member of Mysore Grahakara Parishat, said land acquisition issues have already delayed the laying of HT power lines from Tubinakere to Yeliyuru, as a result of which additional electric trains on the Mysuru-Bengaluru section cannot be introduced. “The government should expedite the process of land acquisition for critical infrastructure work like Concor yard,” he said.