’Multidisciplinary desks’ to ease cargo movement at ports: among decisions taken at commerce ministry meeting

New Delhi: Help desks will be set up at sea ports and traffic at the country's largest container handling port JNPA (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority) will be unclogged to make the movement of export consignments faster and smoother. 

The decisions were taken at a meeting of commerce and industry ministry officials with stakeholders from the shipping and cargo industry, including various secretaries of the government.

The meeting was called to address concerns of exporters and importers who had raised the problem of delays being faced at ports due to procedural issues and provisions of containers for shipments.

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In a post on X after the meeting, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said the prime objective was to understand and resolve issues being faced by the exporters and importers in the shipping and cargo industry.

“The deliberations took stock of the emerging geopolitical and economic scenario. Collectively, we made decisions to promote a trust-based working environment for faster processing of cargo during exports,” the minister said.

Helpdesk planned

The meeting decided that a “multidisciplinary help desk” would be set up at major ports to support exporters and address all their concerns. Also, the commerce ministry in consultation with the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways will  allow empty containers to be stored in the yard at the JNPA.

The meeting also took stock of the situation at ports and decided to reduce handling and loading costs of empty containers by the Container Corporation of India Ltd. (CONCOR) to facilitate traders. It also decided to minimize traffic delays in and around JNPA to enhance export-related processes and faster clearance of consignments.

Simultaneous scanning of containers would also be facilitated at JNPA for faster clearances and reduced turnaround time.

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On its part, the shipping ministry is already strengthening and modernizing the infrastructure at all its major ports to facilitate trade and commerce. The ship turnaround time at ports had now reduced to just around 48 hours and the ministry wants to reduce it further to below one day.

Raising capacity 

Also, further increase of container terminals and creation of transshipment facilities at ports is being built to handle growing trade. Ports capacity is also being raised to make some of India’s major ports into mega ports and come in the ranks of top 10 ports in the world.

With regard to assuring supplies of containers to exporters, the government is working on a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for container manufacturing.

According to shipping secretary T.K. Ramachandran, self-sufficiency in containers will not only give boost to domestic manufacturing and promote Atma Nirbhar Bharat initiative but also give an assurance to trade about its unrestricted availability, irrespective of prevailing global conditions.

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