Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) is likely to start coastal shipping services in the country’s eastern coast, linking Chennai Port with Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. The eastern coast service will be run with two ships hired by Vishwa Samudra from the market. The 10-year contract deploys two coastal ships capable of carrying as much as 700 twenty-foot equivalent units with maximum gross weight of 21,000 tonnes (cargo plus container weight). The company had picked Vishwa Samudra to launch the Western coast service last year through a tender, seeking to benefit from the impetus given by the government to the waterway mode to decongest road and rail. Bangladesh’s booming economy has earned it the status as the fastest-growing economy in the Eastern hemisphere. The country’s GDP grew by 8.1 per cent in 2019 and is forecast to expand by 8 per cent this year also, according to the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Airports Authority of India (AAI) and its cargo wing AAICLAS will shortly open its perishable cargo centre at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati. The centre is being built by Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) and expected to be functional by the end of March 2020. AAI had leased 4050 sq mt of land to AIDC for a period of seven years for establishing center for perishable cargo at Guwahati airport with a capacity to handle 10,000 MT of perishable cargo. The perishable cargo centre has been developed at a total cost of approx Rs20 crore. It will consist of state-of-the-art facilities as a one-stop facilitation center to process the perishable cargo with customs EDI facility and further forward and backward linkage project under TIES (Trade Infrastructure Export Scheme) by positioning airlines, freight forwarders, customs broker house.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has announced the opening of coastal movement of ‘Naphtha’, produced by ONGC. The port regularly handles various petroleum products including LPG, high speed diesel, motor spirit, naphtha, crude oil through BPCL liquid cargo jetty. ONGC is using JNPT for movement of their crude oil produced in Bombay High (MR Crude) to coastal refineries and export of their Naphtha produced at ONGC Uran plant to their overseas buyers. Senior officials of JNPT, ONGC, BPCL & OPAL, graced the occasion. ONGC have made agreement with ONGC Petro additions (OPAL), located in Dahej SEZ, Gujarat, to supply the Naphtha produced at ONGC Uran plant to OPAL through marine route.

  JSW Infrastructure has signed a Concession Agreement with New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) to develop and operate its first container terminal project at the port for 30 years. JSW Infrastructure is investing nearly Rs300 crore to develop the container terminal which will have a capacity of 400,000 TEUs. As part of the proposed investment, JSW Infrastructure will undertake mechanisation of Berth No 14 for handling containers and other cargo on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis. The container terminal will have a quay length of 350 meters and accommodate vessels up to 9000 TEUs. It will have a backup storage area of 15.5 hectares for storage of container. Commenting on the development Arun Maheshwari, Joint MD & CEO, JSW Infrastructure said, “Container terminal at NMPT will enable us to expand our footprints in container segment and diversify our cargo mix. We expect to commission the terminal by mid of next year. It will play a key role in economic development of NMPT and the entire region expanding upto Mysore, Hassan and Bengaluru.”

With SpiceJet decision to launch air freight services along Chennai–Vizag– Kolkata, Visakhapatnam is set to get its first exclusive cargo flight. The flight which is capable of carrying 20 tonne of air cargo is expected to be launched in mid-February and operate on a daily basis.  The Andhra Pradesh Air Travelers Association (APATA) has been pursuing the introduction of air cargo flight from Vizag for quite some time. The association has also informed that Air India has agreed to cut the cargo rates from Visakhapatnam, as the cargo rates of Air India in Visakhapatnam are higher as compared to those in Hyderabad.

Surat Airport has opened the state-of-the-art domestic cargo terminal (DCT) on January 29, 2020. The terminal has an area of approx. 2,800 sqm out of which 1,400 sqm is the covered space capable of handling 50,000 metric tonne annually. Operated by AAI Cargo Allied and Logistics Services (AAICLAS), the terminal targets to increase cargo movement from 300 metric tonnes per month to more than 1000 metric tonne per month. Keku Gazder, CEO, AAICLAS, comments, “This terminal will cater to the ever-increasing air cargo demand of the south Gujarat region. We are looking at doubling the cargo transport in the next couple of months.”  

PS Atree, Managing Director, PS Atree & Co, received the ‘Gallery of Legends’ award. With more than 35 years of experience in the industry, Atree established his company in 1989 with a team of three. He has been actively involved in the betterment of the trade and trade partners, and was also the immediate past President of Delhi Customs Clearing Agents Association (DCCAA). He is also a member of many trade facilitation committees designed by the government to facilitate importers and exporters in view of the ease of doing business initiative of the central government. He is also a founder and governing board member of Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) from the date of constitution of ACFI which works closely with various Industry sectors and continuously identifying areas of air logistics chain for improvement in order to reduce the transaction costs and reduction in the dwell time of the clearance processes.

Vipan Jain, COO, Delhi Cargo Service Center, was conferred with DDP Game Changer at India Cargo Awards 2019. Jain has been part of the trade for nearly 40 years. His interest in cargo saw him join Lufthansa in 1985 and he then rose to become its Regional Manager – Logistic for South Asia and the Middle East. He served as Chairman of BAR India for more than 10 years. BAR takes care of airlines interests with government and other trade partners.

Parvinder Singh, Managing Director, Hans Infomatic, was awarded the esteemed ‘DDP Trailblazer’ at India Cargo Awards 2019. Singh has been associated with the IT industry for more than three decades. Since 2001, Singh has developed specialised businesses for providing IT solutions and services related to logistics industry. As a software provider, he has been actively promoting the need for paperless transactions in the logistics space. Under his aegis, IGI Airport, New Delhi, has been made totally paperless. He was also instrumental in implementing various automation processes in airports being run by Airport Authority of India (AAI) and land border posts being run by Central Warehousing Corporation and Land Port Authority of India. He is an active participant in IATA’s Strategic Partner programme for Cargo XML and e-freight initiative since 2012 and believes that cloud-based IT products and solutions are key needs for logistic industry.

The India Cargo Awards hailed the achievements of the cargo industry at Hotel Crowne Plaza Greater Noida on January 27, 2020 amidst the presence of stalwarts of the cargo and logistics industry. The chief guest of the ceremony was N Sivasailam, Special Secretary – Logistics, Department of Commerce, Government of India. India Cargo Awards recognises the hard work and efforts put in by the industry to grow the logistics industry. The 39 winners were chosen after a fair and unbiased selection process which includes an online voting platform.