Box truck ro-ro vessel cuts road traffic in India, but can't break even

A RO-RO ship moving container trucks between Willingdon Island and International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam has helped the reduce traffic on India's crowded roads in Kochi by 100,000 vehicles in the last 18 months, but cannot break even, reports the Times of India.

The double-ended ferry has been take on long-term charter by the Cochin-headquartered LOTS Shipping from a Singapore company.

The vessel, which can carry fifteen 20-TEU container trucks on a trip and 500 TEU a day, moves 2,800 containers per month, which would otherwise travel 38 kilometres overland. But this is still insufficient to make the service break even, said the report.

"We would have been able to break-even if we moved 3,500 containers a month. Even though we are close to that target with 2,800, much more needs to be done to augment the shifting of container movement from road to water," said ro-ro operator LOTS Shipping's managing director Philip Mathews.

"There is resistance from truck drivers against movement of containers through water. Authorities will have to put in place rewards and punishments to encourage movement of cargo by water. The ban on movement of containers through roads during daytime, ordered a couple of months back, has yet to be enforced effectively. We now charge INR700 (US$12.67) per container, which is much lower than the tendered amount of INR1,800," said Captain Mathews.