Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav union railway minister recently announced that Container Corporation of India Limited is planning to develop 8 container depots while other operators will develop 40 in the coming years.

He informed that "Presently 60 container depots are operational including 3 constructed by private parties."

Mr Yadav said that currently, Container Corporation runs 146 trains while other operators run 44. He added that "The number of trains run by other operators is expected to increase by 50 to 55 by the end of 2008. The total container traffic is expected to be 26 million tonnes in 2007-08 including 2 million tonnes contributed by new operators."

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman of Container Corporation said that the depots would be operational by the end of 2009-10. She added that "Six container depots will be ready by March 2009 and the other 2 are expected by the end of calendar year 2009 or by the end of fiscal 2010. It will invest INR 400 million on an average on each depot."

It may be noted that Container Corporation had lost its monopoly on operating container trains in 2006, when the Indian Railways allowed 15 private operators to enter the business.