Pristine Valley bags contract to operate Birgunj ICD

Pristine Valley Dryport Pvt. Ltd. has been awarded the contract to manage and operate the Inland Clearance Depot (ICD) in Sirsiya of Birgunj district. Since the inception, the port has been managed by Indian Government’s entity CONCOR through it’s local counterpart Himalayan Terminals Pvt. Ltd.
H. M Shahi, Director of Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board, the regulatory authority of Dryports in Nepal said that in the 16 years of establishment and operation, for the first time the management of the dry port has been transferred to a fully private venture. They are hopeful that the trade will benefit with this new development that has taken place in Nepal’s only rail linked terminal which handles more than 50 percent of containerized traffic of the country.
The new management has taken over the Operation and Management of the dryport at the special function organised within the port premises at Sirsiya in Birgunj on Friday. Birgunj Inland Dry Port was constructed between 2000 and 2004 AD and came into operation. Established in 38 hectares property, the port has the storage capacity to manage over 4500 containers and is rail linked with Raxaul in India connecting to harbours in Kolkata and Vishakapatnam via Indian Railways network.
Indian stakeholder of Pristine Valley Dry Port Pvt. Ltd., ‘Pristine Mega Logistics Pvt. Ltd.’ and its network is managing ICDs in Ludhiana, Kanpur, Siliguri, Patna through their own 35 Container railways. The company has over 10 years for intensive experience in managing and handling ICDs in india and have entered the International market for the first time. Nepali Counterpart ‘Valley Terminals’ is a sister company of ‘Valley Group’ which works in the logistic sector. Valley group established 40 years ago, is a business conglomerate with diversified business in Poultry and related products, Fast food, Automobile, Construction Material Manufacture, Information Technology, Infrastructure etc.
The Directors of the Terminal Management Company, Pristine Valley Dryport Private Limited, Mr. Rajnish Kumar & Mr. Baburaja Rawal mentioned that they want to use this venture to bring transformation and change in customer experience through efficiency upgradation and capacity building at the dryport.
The management transfer occurred during the pandemic of ‘Covid 19’ and the company will face piles of challenges with no definite date for this pandemic to end in upcoming days, says Madhav Baral, Director of the Nepali Counterpart Company of the venture. He further says, the port is only handling 35 percent of its total capacity since the wide spread of Corona Virus, further down trend on export and import will continue. He also added that the group will work on expansion of the port by attracting the road networked imports and export to the dry port and improving the existing in-country transportation services.
The Management Team mentions that they are confident to implement Pristine’s experience and knowledge in Birgunj ICD to enhance the services and to expand the existing capacity of the port and that the venture will take a new height in the upcoming days.