Page 249 - DMGT546_INTERNATIONAL_TRADE_PROCEDURE_AND_DOCUMENTATION

International Trade Procedures and Documentation

Notes The Indian Railways set up seven ICDs, the first being at Guntur in December 1980, followed by
Bangalore in 1981. The need was, however, felt to set up a separate undertaking under the
Railways to manage the ICDs and CFSs. Hence CONCOR was established in 1988 to provide for
an integrated development of ICDs and CFSs to meet future growth requirements.

11.5 Constraint in Growth of ICDs

The slow growth of ICDs and CFSs was due to the combined effect of high capital costs involved,
resource constraints and lack of attention.
A few anachronistic procedures as far as containerised cargo is concerned are as follows:
(i) Inland containers cannot move directly to the ICDs unless special permission is obtained
from the Collector of Customs for which the shipping agent has to file an application.
(ii) Movement of containers between the quay, container yard, rail terminal and shed requires
specific permissions from port and Customs authorities, which delays the movements.
(iii) Movement of containers outside the port requires a bond for the container to be furnished
by the shipping line even though it moves by rail and remains all along in the custody of
a Central government agency.
(iv) In the case of ICDs, three bonds are required—one for the container, other for the cargo in
case it moves by road and third for the movement of container outside the ICD to the
shipper’s premises.
(v) All the import containers are opened and examined by the Customs, requiring double
handling of all the containers. Normally, 10 percent of the cargo is examined unless there
are special reasons to do a more thorough examination.

However, instead of examining 10 percent of the number of containers, 10 percent of the cargo
in each container is examined.

11.5.1 Port Infrastructure for Containerised Cargo

Out of the 11 major ports in the country, only Madras, Haldia and Nehru Ports have full-fledged
container terminals. Bombay, despite provision of container handling facilities, cannot be stated
to have a container terminal as connected operations are widely dispersed in the dock area.
Cochin and Calcutta have only basic facilities and due to draft and crane limitations, can handle
only small feeder vessels. Other ports do not have specific container handling facilities but the
Indian government made provisions in its Eighth Five-Year Plan for setting up container handling
facilities at all the major ports. Despite lack of container handling facilities, the container traffic
has been increasing at Indian ports due to the pressures of international traffic.

11.6 International Scenario

The earlier limited and experimental efforts apart, regular containerised shipping of cargo in
international trade commenced with the institution of container service between the US and
Europe in 1966 across the Atlantic. This was followed by container service between Japan and
the US across the Pacific in 1967, between Australia and Europe in 1969, between Japan and
Europe in 1971, culminating in the coverage of nearly all major routes by 1973. The containerised
shipping of cargo has seen tremendous growth thereafter. To meet the increasing demand for
containerised services and to cut costs, ship sizes have also increased from under 500 TEU
capacities to over 3000 TEU capacity. Intermediate ports at major routes have developed into
important centres of aggregation and dispersal of cargo where larger vessels discharge and pick

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