The role of “Dry Port” in the intermodal maritime transportation network
After 1970 onward, Container
shipping or Containerization has revolutionized the mode of maritime freight
transportation of the world during the last 40 to 50 years. The dynamics of
growth made it possible to ensure supply of goods from shipper’s door to consignee’s
door at a cheaper rate, faster speed and more secured way. The prime objective
is to provide more exclusive services to the customer by combining
rail-road-sea i.e. door to door instead of port to port services.
The pace of continuous growth
in the overall environment of world trade and technology, has created rationale
for building more container ships of larger capacity, improvement of cargo
handling operation in pursuit of greater efficiency, reorient the marketing of
port services for strategic positioning within competitive supply chains and
upgrading of intermodal network within the hinterland of the economy to meet growing challenges. But the unabated
growth of international trade, poses following major threats for container port
to grow further:
Port unable to develop additional transport corridors and
associated infrastructure to facilitate access to port due to limitation of
space. Non-availability of sufficient container storage space within the
port due to shortage of physical space, as most of ports are located within
urban or suburban areas. Moreover land acquisition adjacent to port area at
extremely high cost does not seem to be viable economically.
Experts are of opinion that
the limitation of further expansion of capacity within the existing setup of
seaport can be solved by the successful implementation of “Dry Port” concept.
The Dry port will take over the additional burden of container handling of both
exports and imports including other related off dock activities such as
arrangement of custom clearance, warehouse facility, storage,
staffing/stripping of cargo from container, transfer/transshipment of cargo as
per requirement of shipper/consignee through an integrated transport link with
the service port. Dry port is a major component of intermodal transportation
network. It integrates the intermodal system from interior part of the country
as load centre. As a result, economic activities centering Dry port/Inland port
take place in the field of production and distribution of goods within the
country which ultimately boost up economic growth & upgrade the intermodal
transportation system.
Various interchangeable terms
are used to refer to dry ports viz inland ports, inland container depots,
freight terminals, freight village, container freight station etc in the
literature. The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
proposed the following working definition of dry ports during a regional
meeting on dry ports in Asia
“A dry port provides services
for the handling and temporary storage of containers, and general and/or bulk
cargoes that enter or leave the dry port by any mode of transport, including
roads, railways, inland waterways or airports. Full customs-related services
and other related services, such as essential inspections for cargo export and
import, should be put in place in a dry port whenever possible”.
Development of Dry
port/Freight station largely depends on the existing policies, rules and
regulation through which the government of a country regulates them. Again Dry
port policies are linked with different sectoral policies which are dealt with
by Central, Provincial and Local government authorities. Sectoral policies are:
Transport and Trade Facilitation policy Infrastructure policy Transport or Multimodal transport policy Logistics policy Port policy Investment policy Environmental policy Land policy
Therefore proper &
healthy coordination among various sectors and different tiers of government
machinery is essential to facilitate the development of Dry port. It is very
crucial to decide where the Dry port is to be set up. The following factors/criteria deserve
special attention for selecting the location: Proximity to seaports, linkage to
other modes of transport, cost of development, cost of operation &
transport, potential for modal shift, environmental concern, potential for
attracting manufacturing & distribution facilities, stimulus for regional
economic development, possibility to set up special economic & free trade
zones, inland or state capital, existing and potential agricultural &
industrial centers, major intersections of railways, highways & inland
waterways and at airports.
In the development of dry
port, shift in mode of connection from truck to railways between seaports to
dry ports, will bring positive impact on environment in terms of reduction of
CO2 emissions and other pollutants produced by long-distance hauling. This is
proved by one empirical study made on the implementation of Dry port concept in
Sweden. The results of the study highlights the fact that replacement of truck
by railways in the freight transportation from seaports to dry port, resulted
in reduction of CO2 emissions by 25% & also minimized port congestion.
At present the development of
dry ports in Asian countries are at different stages in respect of their
functioning as a full-fledged dry port. Now I shall try to project specifically
outcome of case studies regarding the development and operation of dry ports in
Asia.
To accelerate the pace of
industrialization and also to encourage investment in the interior part of the
country, China has taken ambitious plan to develop18 large inland container
rail transfer and logistics distribution centers. The operation of these large
inland dry ports will be looked after by the government organization named
‘China United International Rail Container Co, Ltd established by Ministry of
Railways in 2007.
Out of above 18 units, the
Shijiazhuang dry port, with a design capacity of 205,000 TEU per year, is one
of the largest dry ports in China. This dry port has both rail and road access,
customs inspection & quarantine facility. It has direct link with Tianjin
seaport. It also acts as a feeder port.
Alashankou is the second
largest border freight station in China in terms of movement of cargo volume.
The port is connected with Dostyk freight station in Kazakhstan. It has the
capacity to handle all types of cargo such as containers, break-bulk, oil etc.
On average, this dry port handles about 20 freight trains per day. The volume
of containers handled by Alashankou dry port has shown growth of 36% between
2006 and 2007.
An international free trade
economic zone (FTEZ) is being established in Horgos, located near the border
between China and Kazakhstan. It aims at attracting major manufacturing
factories to be set up at this place. A logistic center is also going to be
constructed within FTEZ. Currently cross country trade is conducted between
Horgos & Kazakhstan by using road transportation. Around 75 – 100 trucks
cross the border each day from China to Kazakhstan and similar number of trucks
travel from Kazakhstan to China. In order to improve the rail freight
efficiency, China has been running double-stack container train services to and
from the main coastal ports to the selected routes, using new specialized
wagons and powerful locomotives.
Dry port development in India
India has an extensive
network of 59 ICDs, out of which 49 units are involved with the transportation
of export & import. These inland dry ports provide services related to
custom clearance, warehousing, container storage, stuffing/striping of
container cargo, repair of container etc. Terminals are linked by rail services
provided by Indian railway network. The operation of ICDs is handled by
Container Corporation of India, Ltd. (CONCOR) – a subsidiary of Indian Railway.
The volume of containers handled by CONCOR is continuously increasing. The
overall performance of ICDs shows an upward increase of volume from 60% in 1996/97
to 81% in 2008/9.
Another important dry port of
North India is the Tughlakabad ICD, located 17km to the southwest of Delhi. It
is well linked with the Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru ports through the
Delhi-Mumbai arterial trunk corridor and national highways. It has a handling
capacity of 400,000 TEU per year. The ICD is equipped with completely modern
facilities that include EDI, export & import warehouses, radio-frequency
identification container tracking and custom clearance. In 2009/10, Tughlakabad
ICD handled 413,384 TEU. It is worthwhile to mention that India is implementing
a project with an investment cost US$10 billion under Japanese government
assistance, in order to develop Mumbai-Delhi freight corridor. This will help
develop basic infrastructural facility for further growth of Dry ports in
India.
Dry port development in the Republic of Korea
The rapid growth of exports
and imports of Korean economy could not be accommodated by the relatively
slower expansion of port facility which created deadlock in handling additional
flow of container traffic with existing facilities within the port. The leading
gateway ports such as Busan, Gwangyang & Inchon, handling lion’s share of
foreign trade, faced the above problem tremendously which needed an immediate
solution. To combat this problem, Korean Government in 1980, adopted a policy
on priority basis to develop inland logistics centers.
The “Uiwang ICD is the
largest dry port in Korea, having a capacity of 1.3 million TEU and land area
of 417.000 m2. The ICD is located 25km from Seoul and was developed by public-
private partnership (PPP) in 1993. The Korean Railroad Company and private
transportation companies have invested in the Uiwang ICD. It is built up with
all necessary functionalities to meet the requirements of trade. It utilizes
rail capacity of 36 trains per day along with road transportation. The capacity
utilization shows that the road mode and rail mode share of throughput handled
by the ICD was approximately 75% and 25% respectively.
The Ministry of Land,
Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) is the regulatory authority responsible
for the planning, construction and management of dry ports in the Republic of
Korea. The Public and Private Infrastructure Investment Management Center
(PIMAC) is another regulatory body which
reviews large-scale infrastructure project proposals submitted by
private sector and determines whether the projects are consistent with
government’s long-term plans & priorities. In short, government and PIMAC
jointly supervise the development of dry ports under the existing government
logistics policies and extend their supportive role.
Development of Dry port in Thailand
The Lat krabang ICD was
developed by the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) and the operation started in
1996. It is located about 27km east of Bangkok and 118km north of ‘Laem
Chabang’ port. The ICD utilizes both railway and road for freight
transportation to Chabang port. Terminal operations are managed by six
private-sector concessionaires who provide services related to cargo
consolidation, distribution, warehousing, custom clearance and empty container
storage.
Thailand is giving priority
to the development of dry ports in order to help shift the movement of freight
from road-based transport to intermodal transport. The ICD has full electronic
data interchange (EDI) link and already handled around 1.7 million TEU in 2008
which has surpassed the initial design capacity. The performance indicates
continuous increase of volume of containers handled by Krabang ICD. Although it
was primarily designed to put more emphasis on rail-based transport but
targeted rail share could not be achieved due to limited rail link capacity.
The rail mode share of the throughput handled by the ICD was about 25% in 2009
and thereby contributing to an overall reduction of congestion and emissions.
SRT is planning a future
expansion of the Lat Krabang port facility in addition to the construction of
new dry ports. The Government of Thailand is working to enhance the country’s
logistics capabilities through the development of intermodal facilities in
order to encourage a model shift from road transport to more environmentally
friendly rail and water transport.
Dry port development in Nepal
The Birganj ICD was developed
by Government of Nepal with the support of World Bank. Although the ICD was
commissioned in July 2004 but the actual operation started after two years.
After commissioning, the operational responsibility of ICD has been leased to
the private sector. The ICD is connected with Raxaul railhead located near the
border of India, with a rail link of about 12km. From Raxhaul railhead, the
rail link is further extended to connect the Kolkata/Haldia ports of India. The
distance to be covered upto Kolkata is about 926km by road and 704km by
railway. The ICD provides facilities of a broad gauge railway yard with six
full-length lines, a container stacking yard, a covered container freight
station and automated system for customs data (ASYCUDA). Since majority portion
of rail link is situated in India, so the Government of Nepal had to conclude
rail service agreement with the Government of India for the smooth operation of
their dry ports. It now handles containers, tank wagons for liquid cargoes and
flat wagons for bilateral break-bulk cargo.
The Nepal Intermodal
Transportation Development Board (NITDB), is the regulatory body with
representatives from the public and private sectors, which supervises and
regulates the overall activities of all ICDs in Nepal. Another government body
named the Nepal International Transport Development Authority (NITDA) has been
established to regulate operational issues like issuance of licenses for the
development and management of dry ports, container freight stations and
integrated customs points in the country.
There was sharp increase of
volume of break-bulk and container cargo from 2004/5 to 2005/6 as bilateral
trade through the dry port & use of covered wagons was allowed under new
provisions of railway service agreement. The volume of container/break-bulk
cargo dropped during 2009/10 due to global economic recession. Birgunj ICD
handled 16928 TEU (equivalent to 406,272 MT3) and 237,104 MT cargoes during
2008/09. There are other dry ports in Nepal viz Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, and
Kakarbhitta which are located near Indian border and Chinese border at Kodari.
The above detail analysis
highlights the fact that the development of dry ports plays a significant role
in the integration of intermodal transportation system, which led to the growth
of international trade and development of a country. The scenario of
development of dry port in Asian countries is very encouraging as reflected in
the above case studies. For sustained growth of dry port and the integrated inter-modal infrastructure in Asia, it is essential that both Government and
private sectors need to work together under close coordination.
The geographical setting,
structure, governance and ownership of inland port system are the important
factors to determine how to develop and integrate the inland port with the
maritime port terminals. This is connected with port regionalization strategy
which supports an extensive hinterland. In Western
Europe, the establishment of inland terminals is at most advanced stage
with close integration of port terminals with rail shuttles and barge services.
Rail-based dry ports are found throughout Europe and same is often linked to
the development of logistics zone. Europe is supporting the development the
real pan-European rail services as one-stop basis. Rail terminals in Europe are
mostly built and operated by large railway ventures. The largest rail
facilities have bundles of 10 rail tracks with lengths of maximum 800m per
track. Rail hubs are equipped to perform simultaneous batch exchanges (direct
transshipment) through the use of rail-mounted gantry cranes that stretch over
the rail bundles. Barge transport is taking up more prominent role in dealing
with gateway traffic. Barge container transport has developed originally
between Antwerp, Rotterdam, and the Rhine basin. In the last decade, it has
also developed along the north-south axis between the Benelux and northern
France. Antwerp and Rotterdam together handled nearly 5 million TEU of inland barge
traffic during 2010. A growth in international trade has necessitated the
setting of intermediary locations of inland ports in order to accommodate
larger flows between ports and their hinterland. A large concentration of
inland terminals has taken place around the Rhine/Scheldt delta which handled a
total container throughput of 22 million TEU in 2010.
Since late 19th century, the
development of continental railway system, has led to the growth of large
number of inland terminals in NorthAmerica. The inland terminals were developed in a natural process which
corresponded to large inland market areas within metropolitan zone and the same
worked as regional manufacturing base and distribution system. With
globalization and intermodalism two main categories of inland terminals have
emerged in North America. The first category is related to where inland terminals
are an extension of a maritime terminal located on one of the three major
ranges load centers (Chicago or Mexico). The second category concerns inland
terminals mainly connected to NAFTA trade and act as custom pre-clearance
centers. The ‘Kansas City’ is considered to be the most advanced inland port
venture in North America, as it combines intermodal rail facilities from four
different rail operators, foreign trade zones and logistics parks at various
locations through the metropolitan area. Compared to Europe, North American dry
ports tend to be larger but covering much more substantial market area. It is
an undeniable fact that setting of dry ports (inland ports) is a necessity for
both Europe and North America, as the growth of maritime transportation and its
economies of scale have placed pressures on the inland segment of freight
distribution. Moreover since North America and Europe have large continental
markets, they need to rely on the network of satellite terminals and load
centers as a fundamental structure to support hinterland freight movements.
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