Cochin CFS underway

Cochin CFS underway The first private container freight station in the southern Indian state of Kerala has begun operations in Cochin, marking a big milestone in the future development of the port city as a destination for import/export and transshipment cargo.
   The CFS will provide “end-to-end facilities for stuffing, de-stuffing and in-house customs clearance,” the Hindu Business Line reported Friday.
   Previous CFSs were notoriously inefficient and small in scale. But the one that’s opened — operated by the India-based Falcon Group — is one of two under development within about 20 miles of the port. The development of the CFSs is considered key to the success of the International Container Transshipment Terminal under construction in the Port of Cochin. The transshipment terminal, being developed by Dubai Ports World, would have capacity for 1 million TEUs in its first phase, far above the 250,000 TEUs the port was projected to handle in 2007.
   'We have no private container freight stations worth the name in Cochin,' Suresh Joseph, general manager of the existing container terminal in Cochin, told Namaste, American Shipper's sister publication, in November.