In International Shipping News 28/05/2015
The devastating earthquakes which have struck Nepal in the last few weeks have brought a great misery to its people .Thousands of lives have been lost and countless homes across the country are destroyed. In this hour of grave crisis, Maersk Line India extends its full support to the Nepalese communities affected by this unimaginable tragedy.
We express our full support to Nepal in this hour of Crisis and as a responsible corporate citizen we have initiated the following measures to facilitate the transportation of relief measures in the quake affected areas:
• Maersk Line India is giving additional free days on request to those customers moving via road / rail to Nepal.
• On request of Nepal authorities, Maersk Line has facilitated air relief cargo by giving containers for safe transportation. This is being done even for local relief cargo collected in Kolkata by the Nepal consulate
• Maersk Line India is offering customers the option of using Concor from Kolkata to ICD Birgunj in Nepal. However, due to bad status of road between Birgunj and Kathmandu, import cargo movement Birgunj onwards is proceeding very slowly.
• Train movement between Kolkata and ICD Birgunj continue unaffected – Indian railways has increased movement of bulk and container trains on the sector. Maersk Line is helping customers take advantage of this arrangement, by allowing empty drop offs at ICD Birgunj
• Indian customs has allowed movement of Nepal bound relief cargo from ICDs in New Delhi and Kanpur – this has opened alternative to Kolkata for movement of relief cargo arriving by sea. Maersk Line will also be facilitating movement of relief goods from New Delhi and Kanpur to Nepal. This , the company is doing by providing empty containers to carry the required goods.
Mr. Franck Dedenis, Managing Director for Maersk (India and Sri Lanka), said, “The road to recovery is going to be a long one for the people of Nepal. Maersk Line is continuously helping relief organizations with empties for transportation of relief goods with the help of World Food Program. We are scaling up our effort to facilitate the distribution of the relief material which is pouring into Nepal from Far Eastern countries, Europe& South Asia. We are quite hopeful that Nepal will be back on its feet in good time”.
