IDX service to call at Kochi Port on weekly schedule from Jan

Kochi, Dec 22 (UNI) The partners of IDX Service, which connects India with the US East Coast, today announced that it would call at Kochi on a weekly schedule from January five, 2007.

The port rotation would be Colombo-Tuticorin-Kochi-Nava Sheva-Mundra-Barcelona-New York-Norfolk and Charleston, a release from DP World, which operates the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal here said.

The service with eight vessels of about 28000 TEU capacity would be operated by the consortium consisting of Zim Line, SCI, Emirates Shipping, OOCL and Italia Maritima (Evergreen).

Exporters from the hinterland such as Coimbatore, Tirupur, Karur, Salem and Bangalore, who normally truck their cargo to Tuticorin to connect to this service, could connect to the same vessel from Kochi, giving them the advantage of an extra day to connect to the vessel.

The transit time to the US East Coast would reduce substantially as Kochi would be the last port the vessel would call in South India.

The new schedule would be of special significance to sensitive cargo such as garments, made-ups, handloom, coir products and perishable goods, it said.

Since there would not be any trans-shipment, exporters would be in a postion to commit to delivery times of their consignees.

With most of the buying houses and super market chains working on just-in-time shipments, the direct mainline service would assist exporters in planning their shipments to meet their buyers' schedule requirements.

To facilitate the carriage of additional cargo from the Concor ICD at Whitefield, Bangalore, DP World had tied up with the Container Corporation of India to run bi-weekly service to link the Rajiv Gandhi Container terminal at Kochi Port.

A second service would connect the Hyper Galex Marine service on the Westbound (Middle East) and Eastbound (China, Far East) calls every Saturday and Sunday from Kochi.

It is understood that mainline services to Europe and East Africa from Kochi are also in advanced stages of discussion, the release added.

UNI ARC AJ MIR DB2020