4. Baroda ICD – Overview
INLAND Container Depot AT BARODA next to main north-south railway and national highway
| Amount allocated to Contrans in total £7.9m |
| Amount invested in Contrans in total to 31 March 2009 £4.0m |
| Ownership stake at 31 March 2009 49% |
| Sector Container Logistics |
| Location Baroda, Gujarat, North WestIndia |
| Progress to date Land acquisition phase |
The Eredene Group is investing up to INR 400 million (£5 million) in a road and rail Inland Container Depot (ICD) near Baroda in Gujarat State, northwest India - a strategically located facility to handle forecast growth in India’s containerised freight traffic.
The 136 acre site is on an 800-metre wide land corridor next to the two primary transport arteries from Delhi to Mumbai - National Highway 8 and the main north-south rail line, which carries the highest freight traffic in India.
The Eredene Group is investing in the ICD through an existing partner, Contrans Logistic, with which it owns and operates a Container Freight Station (CFS) at Pipavav Port, in the south of Gujarat State.
A masterplan has been finalised and road and rail licences for the facility have been approved, including permission for a siding from the main Mumbai-Delhi railway.
There is no similar depot in eastern Gujarat. The ICD plans to open for its first customers in 2010.
India’s western ports account for more than two thirds of the country’s container traffic, feeding the most industrialised states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Gujarat itself accounts for 13.2% of India's industrial production and 20% of India's exports.
Container traffic on Indian Railways (IR) is increasing at an annual rate of 11.5% and the rail coefficient – the percentage of total manufactured goods dispatched by rail – is forecast to double from 31% in 2007 to 61% by 2012. The proportion of freight carried in containers on IR is also set to double over the same period.
IR plans to develop a Dedicated Freight Corridor to handle this projected increase, and it is expected that the new ICD will have access to this new line.
Inland Container Depots provide broadly the same facilities as Container Freight Stations at seaports. They help de-congest the railways and roads, and provide secure sites for loading and un-loading cargo and containers, warehousing space, packaging and factory space for assembly of kit parts.