PSA clears trucks at Chennai

The first rake of the new service, which runs from CITPL to Inland Container Deport Tondiarpet (ICD TNPM), set off from the terminal carrying 76 teu of import containers in July.

“This new service will greatly minimise road congestion and ensure the customers of Chennai port and CITPL fast and efficient movement of the containers,” said Atulya Misra, IAS, Chairman, ChPT.

A fully laden rake from CITPL can reach ICD TNPM within five hours compared to around three to 10 hours taken by around 40 trucks previously to move equivalent volume of containers to the container freight stations (CFS) near Tondiarpet – a move that will greatly reduce the number of trucks and minimise road congestion for containers moving to and from the port.

“Railways and CONCOR have assured that they can deploy 6 rakes each way on this rail shuttle between CITPL and TNPM which will improve service levels to customers,” added Mr. I Jeyakumar, deputy chairman, ChPT.

PSA says this movement of import containers complements the movement of export containers by rake from TNPM, which began on 19 June 2015 and is a facilitative measure to provide an alternative mode of transport for the container traffic.