AHMEDABAD : Gateway Rail Freight Ltd., started Export-Import operations at its Viramgam Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Ahmedabad on 26th July 2019. The first export train service from ICD Viramgam to Pipavav Port was flagged off by Mr Deepak Kumar Jha, Divisional Railway Manager Ahmedabad Division of Western Railway. This train service carried the first export consignment of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd for Maersk Shipping Line and was cleared by Tiger Logistics India Ltd. In addition, the First Export Reefer Container of Deepkiran Foods Pvt Ltd on Evergreen Shipping line which was customs cleared by JBS group of companies was also flagged off for road movement to Mundra Port on the same day.

The flagging off ceremony of the train was attended by Mr Sushant Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Customs, Mr Amit Kumar Joint Commissioner Customs, Mr V H Bhisht, Assistant Commissioner of Customs.

Mr Pankaj Mudgal, Mr Bharat Hindol representing HMSI. GatewayRail team comprising of Capt Shantanu Bhattacharya, Srinivas Reddy, Lalit Lahori, Nandan Chopra, Aditya Gupta, Samta Kamra, Rajguru Behgal, Prabhat Kr. Bhardwaj, Sandeep Kadian, Elroy Rodrigues, Garima Negi and others were also present on the occasion. The Flag off ceremony was hosted by Viramgam Terminal headed by Mr Prakash Veer Tyagi, Mr Ashok Kumar Pandey in charge of Rail Operations and Mr Abdul Farid Khan who looks after the Terminal Operations. 

Mr Sameer J. Shah, Director, JBS Group of Companies shared the way forward and working of Ahmedabad trade. He also said that with this new ICD of Gateway Rail, the trade will have an opportunity to expand in the outskirts of Ahmedabad further, making it similar to NCR region in North India.

Mr. Sachin Bhanushali, Director and CEO of GatewayRail presented the Infrastructure and Operational capabilities and shared the growth story of the Company. He also updated the trade fraternity present at the event about the ICD Viramgam terminal. Further, he assured the trade of Gateway Rail’s commit-ment to offer reliable rail transportation & terminal services.

Mr. Samvid Gupta, Joint Managing Director of GatewayRail gave a vote of thanks to the members of Ahmedabad trade for their presence at the Inaugural function and said that the group will be able to offer its CFS and ICD services across India from 7 CFS, 4 ICD and 1 Domestic terminal under the Gateway Group umbrella. The event was attended by customers, forwarders, CHAs, port and shipping line representatives from Ahmedabad region.

This ICD at Viramgam is very close to Ahmedabad and is strategically located between Mundra and Pipavav Ports.

It will be benefitted by the proposed Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. Gateway Rail will be operating regular train services for export and import for containerised cargo between this ICD and the port terminals of Nhava Sheva, Mundra and Pipavav. The ICD is fully equipped to handle Dry and Reefer cargo carried in maritime containers.

The ICD is built on a land parcel of 40 acres and is currently equipped to handle 100,000 TEUs per annum. It is strategically located at the new industrial development of Ahmedabad covering Sanand, Becharaji, Vithlapur, and upcoming Mandal Becharaji Special Investment Region (MBSIR). It has close proximity to NH-8 with excellent road and rail link to the road and rail infrastructure of Western India.

GDL Group is an integrated inter-modal logistics service provider having three verticals. It operates Container Freight Stations in Nhava Sheva, Chennai, Vizag, Kochi and Krishnapatnam. GatewayRail, India’s largest private intermodal operator, provides rail transport service through it Inland Container Depots (ICD) at Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad and Domestic Container Terminal (DCT) at Navi Mumbai. GDL and GatewayRail together have a capacity to handle 2.1 million TEUs per annum and warehousing space of 1.73 million square feet across its 12 Container Terminals. Snowman Logistics Limited (SLL), its third vertical, is India’s leading cold chain logistics company with Pan India presence at 31 locations in 15 cities.

ICD Viramgam – Infrastructure and Facilities :