A freight terminal will come up at Dankuni within a year, raising hopes of a fewer number of trucks plying through the city.

The “state-of-the art” warehouse, which will store 12,000 tonnes of goods, is being set up following an agreement between the Eastern Railway and the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC).

“The warehouse, to come up on 20,000 sq metres at an investment of Rs 10 crore, will be commissioned in a year,” said a CWC official.

Railway officials feel that once the new warehouse is operational, the number of trucks passing through the city will go down “significantly”.

There are around 20 small and medium railway goods sheds in Calcutta — including the ones at Chitpur, New Alipore, Cossipore, Ultadanga and Kalighat — and its surrounding areas. They can together accommodate up to 20,000 tonnes of goods.

More than 2,000 trucks carry goods to and from these sheds daily. “After the Dankuni warehouse comes up, we expect a bulk of the customers to shift base there,” a railway official said on Friday.

“The terminal will help ease congestion in the city and reduce pollution. But the trucks that load or unload goods at the port cannot avoid the city,” said environment activist Subhas Dutta, who has pleaded with the high court to order a shift of the Burrabazar wholesale market to Dankuni.

The railways and CWC had signed an MoU in 2003 to set up 22 warehouses along railway tracks. Of the sites, two are in Bengal — Dankuni and Burdwan.