Bengal gets Eastern India's first dry port

Durgapur, May 25 (UNI) West Bengal government's effort to promote the region as a 'logistic hub' got a boost with the commissioning of Eastern India's first private dry port by Allied ICD Services Ltd (AISL) today.

Inaugurating the first phase of the inland container depot (ICD) built at a cost of Rs 20 crores over six acres of land, AISL director Pramod Srivastava said the ICD, approved by the Union Commerce and Industries Ministry, would reduce the cost and transit time of exporters and importers in the Asansol-Durgapur belt.

Srivastava said work for the second phase over nine acres of land at a cost of Rs 40 crore would start soon. The Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) has already alloted land for the second phase, he said.

Located at the Export Poromotion Investment Park on NH2 in Durgapur, the ICD would be capable of handling 2,500 containers at a time, easing the traffic at the Kolkata and Haldia port, he said.

The ICD would improve trade in the region with the neighbouring countries, Srivastava claimed.

Products worth Rs 500 crore get exported through the region and the new ICD would reduce the cost and time of exporting the products, said Saugata Basu, head exports, Philips Carbon Black Ltd, one of the major exporters from the region.

AISL, promoted by the PDP group in collaboration with a German company, expects total revenue of over Rs 100 crore from the port in a year's time.

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