The railway ministry has decided to throw open the container business to private players and from the single government-owned operator at present the ministry has in principle given its approval to 14 private operators.

The Container Corporation of India is among the 14 private container operators. The new players in the container transport business include Central Warehousing Corporation, Pipapavav Railway Corporation Limited, Reliance Infrastructure Engineers Limited and Container Rail Road Services Private Limited.

As per the agreements, the companies would buy containers from manufacturers, build inland container depots and find customers, while Railways would run the goods trains.

The Railways received Rs 540 crore from the companies as licence fee. It has offered some sites for inland container depots to the companies.