Indian Railways plans to increase the number of freight trains serving the Port of Jawaharlal Nehru to 21 per day from an average 18 at present, to cope with projected growth in container volumes.
The decision follows a meeting of the port authority with stakeholders, including state-run Container Corp. of India and private train operators, to assess the situation based on latest traffic estimates.
The rail authority said inland volume is expected to reach 1.1 million TEUs in fiscal 2008-09, requiring 24 trains a day, and it has asked Container Corporation of India (Concor) to provide more trains for main inland destinations by curtailing services covering minor depots.
Terminal operator DP World of Nehru's largest box facility, said it requires additional rail service to handle estimated volume of 1.6 million TEUs in 2008-09.
Nehru port handles about 60 percent of India's containerised traffic. In fiscal 2007-08, throughput increased 23 percent to 4.06 million TEUs from 3.3 million TEUs the previous year. Based on current growth trends, it is expected to handle 4.52 million TEUs in 2008-09.
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