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Investment priorities
Comprehensive PPP, digitalisation and sustainability initiatives are high on the agenda in India’s advancing port sector. Felicity Landon reports
Public-private partnership (PPP) led synergies can transform and accelerate India’s maritime sector, the government’s ports, shipping and waterways minister said recently.
Speaking during a visit to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), the minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, highlighted the role of India’s ports as critical gateway infrastructure connecting entire regions, along with road, rail and inland waterway networks, to the international market.
“Public-private partnership at JNPT will help developing the strong, well-functioning, maritime transport infrastructure that is a key element of economic growth for the country,” he said. “This initiative will become a means to manage port operations more effectively, as well as to develop new port infrastructure, traditionally both exclusively government functions.”
Ports infrastructure investment and reforms in India are going ahead in tandem with major investment in inland terminals and transport. Recent months have seen a stream of new announcements from both the private and public sector as India strives to increase and improve the efficiency of trade. The topics are no different to anywhere else – sustainability, digitalisation, technology, reducing cost and improving efficiency.
“The Indian government has been focusing heavily on ports infrastructure and reforms for the past ten years,” says Vineet Malhotra, Co-Founder and Director at the Mumbaibased IT specialist Kale Logistics Solutions. “Programmes like ‘Sagarmala’, which was approved in 2015, focus on port modernisation, port connectivity, port-led industrialisation and coastal community development.”
Meanwhile the Maritime India Vision 2030 sets out aggressive targets to be achieved by the sector, he says. More recently, the PM Gati Shakti National Masterplan for Multimodal Connectivity was announced, essentially a digital platform to bring together 16 ministries, including railways and roads, for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
“The multimodal connectivity will provide integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services from one mode of transport to another. It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people,” the government has stated.
As part of its fiscal year 2022-23 budget proposals recently presented, Nirmala Sitharaman, Indian Finance Minister, said 100 new cargo terminals would be developed in the country over the next three years.
The Gati Shakti masterplan is a “transformative approach for economic growth and sustainable development,” says Malhotra, taking in road, rail, airports, sea ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infrastructure.
PCS ROLL OUT PROGRESSES
“Kale’s objectives to transform and elevate this sector is in alignment with the government’s vision. Our Port Community System, CODEX, is one of the most comprehensive PCSs, built to speed up import/export processes, reduce bottlenecks, increase security and improve the nation’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ performance throughout the supply chain,” underlines Malhotra.
With systems and platforms like PCSs, the government can achieve the dual objective of reducing logistics costs and attaining sustainability goals by making operations completely paperless, says Malhotra. “The maritime industry is infested with paperwork, documentation and manual operations. A single shipment could have as many as 40 documents, more than 100 appendices, and 120 signatures. This is coupled by complex processes, truck congestion as long as 15 to 20 hours just to get inside the port gates, and no visibility for all stakeholders. To top it all, India has a major cost disadvantage, with logistics costs estimated at around 14 per cent of GDP, compared to 8-10 per cent in the case of developing countries.”
8 Maritime India
Vision 2030 sets out aggressive targets to be achieved by the sector
Kale rolled out CODEX, India’s first PCS, at Tuticorin Port in 2016. A scalable platform, it provides functions ranging from a maritime single window and harbour marine control to container scanning, truck appointments, e-DO, VGM, e-Customs, track & track, e-payments, auctions & disposal and e-FAL.
There has been 100 per cent adoption at Tuticorin, says Malhotra, with the reduction in truck waiting times almost halving the vehicles’ fuel consumption and enabling the port to reduce carbon emissions by 75 per cent. CODEX has since been introduced at Kolkata Port, where Kale has developed an uncleared/unclaimed system to assist container freight stations (CFS) customers and Customs in handling unclaimed cargo, to stop the problem of abandoned freight.
“The times could not have been more appropriate for Indian ports to open up to digitalisation,” he says. “The Indian Ports Association has been at the forefront of augmenting the digital set-up across several state-controlled ports. Initiatives on a state-of-the-art Port Operation System and National Logistics Portal – Marine are under implementation.”
