Pristine Valley Dryport Pvt Ltd has been awarded the contract to manage and operate the Inland Clearance Depot (ICD) at Sirsiya in Birgunj district. Since the inception, the port has been managed and handled by Indian government entity CONCOR through its local counterpart Himalayan Terminals Pvt Ltd. The new management has taken over the operation and management of the dryport at the special function organised within the port premises at Sirsiya in Birgunj today.
“In the 16 years of establishment and operation of the dryport, the management of the dry port has been transferred to a fully private venture for the first time, according to director of Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board – the regulatory authority of Dryports in Nepal – HM Shahi.
“We are hopeful that the trade will benefit with this new development that has taken place in Nepal’s only rail linked terminal which handles more than 50 per cent of containerised traffic of the country,” he said.
Birgunj Inland Dry Port was constructed between 2000 and 2004 AD, and came into operation to facilitate trade. Established in 38 hectares property, the port has the storage capacity to manage over 4,500 containers and is rail linked with Raxaul in India connecting to harbours in Kolkata and Vishakapatnam via Indian Railways network.
Indian stakeholder of Pristine Valley Dry Port, ‘Pristine Mega Logistics Pvt Ltd’ and its network is managing ICDs in Ludhiana, Kanpur, Siliguri and Patna in India through its own 35 Container railways. The company has over 10 years for intensive experience in managing and handling ICDs in india and have entered the International market for the first time, according to a press note of the company. Nepali counterpart ‘Valley Terminals’ is a sister company of ‘Valley Group’, which works in the logistic sector, the press note reads, adding that Valley group – established 40 years ago – is a business conglomerate with diversified business including in poultry and related products, fast food, automobile, construction material manufacture, Information Technology (IT), and Infrastructure.
The directors of the Terminal Management Company, Pristine Valley Dryport Private Limited Rajnish Kumar and Baburaja Rawal mentioned that they want to use this venture to bring transformation and change in customer experience through efficiency upgradation and capacity building at the dryport.
“The management transfer occurred during the pandemic of ‘Covid 19’ and the company will face piles of challenges with no definite date for this pandemic to end in upcoming days,” director of the Nepali counterpart company of the venture Madhav Baral said, adding that the port is only handling 35 per cent of its total capacity since the wide spread of Coronavirus, further down trend on export and import will continue. “The group will work on expansion of the port by attracting the road networked imports and export to the dry port and improving the existing in-country transportation services.”
The Management Team also mentioned that they are confident to implement Pristine’s experience and knowledge in Birgunj ICD to enhance the services and to expand the existing capacity of the port and that the venture will take a new height in the upcoming days.
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