Guwahati, May 28: Pandu port terminal is still not being able to handle big containers because of operational and infrastructure issues.

The issue was brought to the notice of inland waterways authorities and other officials at the stakeholders' meet here organised by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) last week to explore the potential of 19 new national waterways.

The Central Railside Warehouse Company Ltd (CRWC), a subsidiary of Central Warehousing Corporation, which has entered into an operations and maintenance agreement with IWAI for marketing and operations at Pandu terminal, said as the port siding is private, it cannot handle containers, coal, petroleum and lubricants and crane consignments.

CRWC is a category-II Mini-Ratna PSU under the ministry of food, public distribution and consumer affairs and has an ongoing memorandum of understanding with the railways for establishing 32 railside warehouses (RWC) across the country.

Barge movement on the India-Bangladesh protocol route from Calcutta/Haldia to the Pandu port and return was explored through various ba-rge operators. However, it has not yielded any result so far.

An IWAI official said the issue has been taken up with the railways as the land belongs to the railways.

K.U. Thankachen, managing director of CRWC, who was present at the meeting, said the only commodities that can be handled at the port are cement, fertiliser and fly ash. He said full rakes cannot be placed in the siding because of its inadequate length (only 500 metres) and the terminal will have to be converted into a public freight terminal for handling container and crane consignments for which there is high demand.

The CRWC has taken up a proposal for construction of a railside warehouse at New Guwahati with the railways.

Pandu terminal is about 8km downstream of Guwahati. It has two jetties, a low-level jetty with a length of 50 metres and a width of 20 metres. The second is a high-level jetty to facilitate waterways movement through the Brahmaputra on National Waterways 2.

The CRWC said road movement is possible only for two-wheelers and trucks from 11pm to 6am. Both the approach roads for entering the port pass through railway colonies and are heavily encroached. "Seamless connectivity to National Highway 37 is a necessity," it said.