Mysuru:  Works on the proposed greenfield project for an Inland Container Yard by Container Corporation of India Ltd. (Concor) at Kadakola, between Mysuru and Nanjangud, is expected to take off soon with tender process already being finalised.

“Tenders were already finalised and the work was awarded to a private firm. The time frame for its completion is 24 months,” said Anup Dayanand Sadhu, Group General Manager of Concor.

The project is expected to cost Rs.92 crore (including land cost) and will include warehouse facility, bonded warehouse — a secured facility managed by the customs that will facilitate importers to store the cargo till payment of Customs Duty.

“This will be the third Container Yard in Karnataka by Concor after Whitefield and Mangaluru, but the latter does not have a Warehouse but has only rail sidings, whereas the one at Kadakola will have a full-fledged facility,”  Dayanand said.

Once completed, it will provide a single-window facility for export units to complete all Customs formalities. Stakeholders say it will give a boost to export-import traffic and help local manufacturers save on transportation cost by 25 percent or more, while reducing the cost of finished products. It is reckoned  that not less than two rakes of container traffic is generated a week in Mysuru and surrounding industrial areas, which are transported by road to the Concor terminal at Whitefield, from where they are moved to the port of departure. But once the container facility at Kadakola is ready, it will provide direct connectivity from Yard to port for export and import.

In the absence of a container facility, manufacturers at present use roadways to transport merchandise and finished products. The Container Yard has been a long-pending demand. While work on the facilities for Concor’s Inland Container Yard will commence in due course, stakeholders are worried about the delay in handing over a plot critical to the completion of the project.

Though the bulk of the 55 acres of land has been handed over by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) to Concor, a plot of 6.5 acres has not been transferred.

“The 6.5 acres is the spot from where the railway line has to take off to join the main line, and it is critical to the completion of the project,” admitted Sadhu.

However, the time frame for the completion of the Concor warehouse and other facilities is 24 months, by which time the authorities can be expected to transfer the land, he added.