The project included the elevation or clearance of obstacles to the double-stack trains, which reach a height of 19ft. While double-stack capability has been used on the Jaipur-Pipavav route before, the new service will allow for high-cube containers, which can carry 76.4 cu m of cargo, where a standard 40ft container can only carry 67.7 cu m.
“We have achieved a significant milestone in our goal to become the most preferred port on the west coast of India through this new investment in infrastructure and technology,” said APM Terminals Pipavav md Prakash Tulsiani. “We believe the commencement of double-stack high cube trains will be a game changer for not just us but the country at large and translate to even more efficient and speedy delivery to the end users throughout India.”
Further expansion now underway at Pipavav will include a new container berth of 348m for a contiguous berth of 735m, capable of simultaneously working two post-Panamax vessels. Combined with dredging, three new post-panamax cranes, and 10 new RTGs, annual throughput capacity is estimated to increase by 1.5m teu. Pipavav handled 570,000teu in 2012.
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