Latest News | North Bengal's First Dry Port Begins Operation

Jalpaiguri (WB), Jan 13 (PTI) The first inland container depot (ICD) or dry port in North Bengal began operation beside the tea park at Phulbari in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Wednesday, a company official said.

An ICD is like a port having facilities for cargo handling and temporary storage of containers. It would help hinterland customers receive port services more conveniently closer to their premises.

This ICD of Jalpaiguri will be of immense help to business houses of North Bengal and the Northeastern region.

Its director Amit Kumar said that though the facility has started functioning, it will take another fortnight for full-fledged operations to commence.

In 2008, the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) had obtained a land from the Railways near New Jalpaiguri station the largest railway station in north Bengal on lease.

The SJDA divided the land into two parts for setting up the North Bengal Tea Park on the bigger plot of 50 acres and the dry port on the smaller one of 24.5 acres.

The Railway Board agreeing to issue no-objection certificates to entrepreneurs at the tea park has set the ball rolling. Without the nod, investors were unable to secure bank credit to execute their projects in the tea park.

The viability of the ICD project is dependent on the success of the tea park.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)