Inland container terminal coming up in Sharjah

Sharjah will soon get an inland container depot.

Container terminal operator Gulftainer Co Ltd, which functions on behalf of Sharjah Ports and Customs Authority, will start work on the Dh30 million project in January, with completion scheduled for June.

The project consultant and primary contractor will be finalised within a week. "Strategically located near the University City complex, the 150,000 square metre site will be capable of holding up to 18,000 TEU, and should be capable of meeting Sharjah's projected demand for the next 10 years," Peter Richards, operations manager, stated yesterday.

The new facility would thus more than double Sharjah's existing container holding capacity. At present, boxes coming in from the emirate's east coast port of Khor Fakkan are stored at Mina Khalid, which has a container holding capacity of 12,000 TEU.

It would also free up space at Mina Khalid to accommodate general cargo.

A third goal it would meet - and this should bring a smile to beleaguered motorists on the emirate's streets - is it would reduce traffic congestion within Sharjah City, while reducing cargo clearance time for importers and exporters.

"The depot will be built on the Sharjah/Dubai border, close to the Emirates Highway, and next door to the industrial areas" to which several of the boxes are destined, Richards pointed out.

The access road itself will be a six-lane highway extending all the way to the east coast as a direct link, enabling containers offloaded at Khor Fakkan to trundle in directly into the planned facility.

The official added all attendant infrastructure - customs clearance, health inspection, warehousing, reefer plugs and monitoring, transport offices and container repair facilities - would be created onsite.

"A full range of modern handling equipment designed for fast turnaround of collection and delivery vehicles will also be available, all of which will entail Gulftainer itself having to considerably augment the existing staff strength," he said.

Meanwhile, the Sharjah overland container bridge between Khor Fakkan and Sharjah City continues to function efficiently, with the plan to set up the new depot also having been prompted by steady demand growth for this transport service.