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In a move that is expected to
further extend the overland
outreach, including tapping into the
burgeoning cross-border trade,
Northport at Port Klang and the
national railway corporation, KTM
Bhd, have forged an alliance with a
view to handling a larger volume of
containers for transshipment via the
premier gateway.
The two organizations have set-up a
task force that is expected to look
into strategies to exploit the
potential for rail transshipment
cargo.
Disclosing this, the general manager
of freight services of KTM Bhd,
Abdul Radzak Malek said the task
force comprises three different
sub-committees to look after
commercial, operational and
institutional needs and
requirements.
He said committee on commercial
matters will look into the
promotional aspect of the
transshipment traffic via rail.
"In fact we have carried out few
joint marketing efforts including
one road show with shippers in Surat
Thani, Thailand and we will continue
our effort aggressively this year as
we have a total of 28 international
regular international services
linking various sea and inland
destinations in Thailand namely
Bangsue, Latkrabang, Hatyai and
Bangkok in Thailand," he said.
The committee on operational takes
responsibility for the marshal yard
near Northport.
"Work on the re-marshalling of yard
has been started and we are looking
to develop a single marshalling yard
to handle box traffic bound to
Container Terminal I, Container
Terminal II and also the Northport
Distripark," Radzak said.
The single marshalling yard is
expected to considerably enhance
KTM's service level at Northport
compared with current operations
limited to three different points at
the port.
The sub-committee on institutional
matters will look into the security,
documentation, customs, safety and
the requirement of IT.
Northport is the first port in the
country to be linked with a
dedicated block train service linked
with Ipoh Cargo Terminal way back in
1989.
Since then the network of services
linking Northport has increased to a
total of 28 weekly international
services mounted by TS Transrail (M)
Sdn Bhd, Freight Management and TS
Allied Trans Sdn Bhd from Port
Klang.
'We have noticed that more shipping
lines are beginning to see the
advantages of the cross border
landbridge services compared with
sea feeder network. The list of
shipping lines and shippers using
the service has been growing as they
are attracted by the shortened
transit time offered by the land
bridge service," said the business
development director of TS Transrail,
Chan Kong Yew.
Ts Transrail is the first landbridge
operator serving between Port Klang
and Bangkok sector.
Landbridge containers handled by KTM
Bhd grew by 25 per cent to 50,000
TEUs in 2002 from 40,000 TEUs in the
previous year.
The current import and exports
containers handled by most of the
landbridge operator are mainly for
local consumption.
Radzak said there is huge potential
for us to transport transshipment
boxes as the bilateral trade between
Malaysia-Thailand estimated to
exceed RM25 billion last year.
The popularity of rail mode of
transport will be further enhanced
with the completion of double
tracking network between Rawang to
Ipoh and later to be followed by the
Ipoh and Padang Besar double track
sector, which is expected to begin
this year.
Ircon International Ltd, with 70 per
cent stake will lead the consortium
to build the 339km stretch.
DRB-Hicom and Emrail Sdn Bhd, which
collectively hold 30 per cent stake
in the consortium, will be involved
in the development of the stretch.
The cvompletion of the double
tracking will allow the movement of
80 TEUs per train as compared with
40 TEUs prior to the double tracking
work. |
