Kochi to be connected to US East Coast through IDX mainline service

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

The port rotation will 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 will 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 would have to truck their cargo to Tuticorin to connect to this service, will now have the benefit of connecting 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 will also reduce substantially as Kochi will be the last port of call in South India.

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

Since there will not be any transshipment, exporters will now be in a postion to commit delivery times to their consignees. With most of the buying houses and super market chains working on just-in-time shipments, the direct mainline service will also 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 has 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 will 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 said.

UNI ARC OA/DK1925