2800 containers stopped at the dry port

Dhan Bahadur Baruwal, the head of the customs office at the port, said that the congestion of containers in the port premises is increasing due to the tendency of importers not to deliver on time and empty containers to return to Indian ports in time. "The increasing number of empty containers has become a matter of concern," he said.

Atul Sharma, the head of administration of Pristine Valley claims that since the movement of containers is normal, it cannot be said that empty containers are piled up. According to Sharma, companies such as Konkar, Pristine, DP World, Hind Terminals, Box Trans and others bring railway racks from Kolkata, Haldia and Visakhapatnam ports in India.

When five companies take turns bringing railway racks, around 700 empty containers are regularly waiting for their turn to return to the port complex. Sharma said that since one rack can carry 90 empty containers at a time, many containers cannot go back at the same time.

According to Sharma, some importers tend not to take their cargo containers on time, so such containers also increase the congestion at the port. Even if the cargo container is kept in the port premises, the parking fee has to be paid. The parking fee for one container is Rs 300 per day. But the importer keeps his container at the port even after paying the parking fee and carries out the container inspection as required.

Sharma says that when the container is locked in the yard, if an importer wants to take his container, it will be a problem to get his container out of the lock. He said that in addition to wasting time, the handling cost of the container will also increase. Sharma says that after the yard is full, it will be able to manage the new containers that come daily. The capacity of the port is only 1,500 containers. He said that it is difficult to manage the yard in such a situation.