Category Archives: Rail/Road

Utilising its services to improve global logistics, NICDC Logistics Data Services-NLDS (formerly DMICDC Logistics Data Services, DLDS) has extended its services to Nepal and Bangladesh after the consent of Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) to install the RFID readers at Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at India–Nepal and India–Bangladesh border. With this expansion, exporters and importers from Nepal and Bangladesh can track the movement of their containers through Logistics Databank Portal www.ldb.co.in and a mobile application named ‘NICDC-LDB’. The expansion includes ICPs, namely, Agartala-India-Bangladesh Border, Petrapole-India–Bangladesh border, Jogbani-India–Nepal border, Raxaul-India-Nepal Border With this coverage ICPs located at Agartala, Jogbani and Raxaul will help in road movement container tracking and Petrapole ICP will help in rail movement container tracking. Speaking on the development, K. Sanjay Murthy, IAS, CEO & MD, NICDC (National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation) and Chairman, NLDS says, “The new extension of services reiterates our vision and commitment of streamlining logistics across the country and the brand’s ambition to improve the EXIM trade, reduce the logistics cost and pave the way for India to become a logistics hub.” Ichiro Oshima, CEO, NLDS says, “Since its inception in Dec 2015, NLDS has played a vital role in enhancing the operations of Ports and Maritime Industry in India. While aiming at 100 per cent container volume tracking in India, this expansion will certainly mark a great milestone in bringing efficiency in logistics and supply chain industry.” Before NLDS came into existence, operators handled logistics independently through autonomous systems, which led to delays and inefficient tracking. Through its flagship product, LDB (Logistics Data Bank), NLDS streamlined container movement and today serves 25 port terminals while handling 96 per cent of the country’s …

The Ministry of Railways has approved Alstom-built 12000 HP electric locomotives and RDSO to run freight trains at a maximum speed of 120 kmph. Indian Railways had inducted the WAG 12B e-locos, which are the most powerful locomotives to run on Indian tracks, earlier in the year. These electric locos will allow faster and safer movement of heavier freight trains capable to haul ~6000 tonnes at a top speed of 120 kmph. Planned to be deployed for operations on major freight routes of Indian Railways including the Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs), they are expected to increase the average speed of freight trains in India by at least 20-25 kmph. Alain SPOHR, Managing Director, Alstom India & South Asia said, “The approval from RDSO is indeed a matter of pride for all of us at Alstom and a testimony of our technical expertise in partnership with the Indian Railways. In line with India’s push towards self-reliance, we have successfully leveraged our local engineering and manufacturing capabilities. Alstom is also committed to support IR in reducing its carbon footprint and adopt cleaner technologies in its quest to transform into the world’s largest Green Railway network. India is a priority for Alstom, and we are committed to work closely with the Indian Railways for all their future modernization endeavours.” “Equipped with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) based propulsion technology, it would lead to considerable savings in energy consumption due to use of regenerative braking. The technology is also helpful towards making the acceleration process more efficient by reducing the heat generation and traction noise. Additionally, this move will not only bring down operational costs, but also reduce the congestion faced by Indian Railways”, …

To prepare for the upcoming surge in sales and deliveries with its gamut of services, Pickrr has announced to offer customised solutions for the e-commerce players to help COVID-19 hit online sellers recover in the following months. The company could bring down the typical 20 per cent increase in delivering e-commerce orders during festive to mere 5 per cent through their courier selection and real-time on-ground feature. Diwali is one of the highly celebrated seasons in the e-commerce industries as customers look forward to the sales and offers it brings. The sales are high, and the delivery periods are often longer due to an upsurge in order volume. Rhitiman Majumder, Co-founder, Pickrr, suggests, “Our real time analytics and prediction system to pre-empt failures gives the best performance to sellers so that they can make the most out of this season. While the general time taken to deliver orders increases by as much as 20 per cent is high demand seasons, we have retracted this rise to a mere 5 per cent through our intelligent courier selection and real time on-ground feedback in the past five years and will continue to do so.” Pickrr has partnered with Delhivery, Ekart Logistics, Ecom Express, Dotzot, DTDC, XpressBees, FedEx and many more for its best-known delivery services. For this year, Pickrr has curated customized offers for Diwali festival to help include local brands and small sellers deliver products to their customers. Rhitiman added, “This year has been tough for huge market players and for the smaller ones, it has been even tougher. We hope to provide multiple logistics options to these sellers, so they have more options to fall back upon.” According to the …

Maintaining the negative outlook on domestic road transportation sector, ICRA says, “The restrictions on cross-border movement, shortage in availability of drivers and manpower due to large-scale migration and lack of availability of return load, significantly impacted the road logistics sector during the first quarter.” According to Shamsher Dewan, Vice President, ICRA Ratings, “The aggregate revenues of ICRA’s sample of logistics companies contracted sharply by 35 per cent during the quarter. The impact was more visible on players operating on an asset-heavy model, due to high fixed costs for owned assets, while asset-light players fared relatively better. This decline was also corroborated by the generation of E-way bills, which contracted by 49% during the quarter. In addition to the impact on the road logistics sector, the macroeconomic slowdown and lockdown also had a bearing on the rail and seaways freight traffic that primarily comprises of bulk commodities like coal, cement, iron ore and crude oil with volumes contracting by 21.3 per cent and 19.7 per cent Y-o-Y, respectively.” With the economy gradually opening up during unlock phases and industrial, manufacturing and construction activities resuming, freight activity too has also been gradually reviving. The latest E-way bill and Fastag data indicates that freight volumes have recovered sequentially and improved to 87 per cent of pre-COVID levels (for E-way bills) and 95 per cent of pre-COVID levels (for Fastag) by August 2020. This has potential to increase further going forward as the country gears up for the upcoming festive season.

Stressing on the impact of COVID-19 on cargo movement, Ravi Jakhar, Chief Strategy Officer, Allcargo Logistics, says, “Although the COVID-19 has disrupted the economy and affected the cargo movement during the lockdown phase, the overall impact of the pandemic situation on the logistics sector will only remain in the short-term. The sector has, in fact, shown tremendous resilience to weather the storm. As the economy is showing signs of revival and the manufacturing sectors are coming back to normal, the logistics sector should regain its pre-COVID momentum soon. Unorganised logistics players with limited ability to navigate through the crisis may however get impacted.”

Emphasising on working towards an atmanirbhar logistics vertical, Anamika Sinha, Chairperson, SCLA, says, “The EXIM interest of private sector and their respective futuristic disposition along with logistics streamlining will surely help achieve the bigger picture down to the level-zero in complete sync with the state and government agenda. In view of same, the Project NorthEast (NE) has been an endeavoured at SCLA and is progressive since last couple of months.” Jaideep Raha, President – NorthEast, SCLA and Webinar Session Moderator, emphasised the potential for new business opportunities in the NE which can boost the GDP growth and presented a detailed, insightful presentation on the resources and development in NER. He made a insisting and assuring request to the concerned ministries to provide for the necessary infrastructure and the logistics team united under SCLA would come forward to ensure successful implementation and would be pleased to contribute to NER business growth. The Guest of Honour for the event were H K Sharma, IAS, Secretary, Dept of Industries Government of Sikkim, Hage Tari, IAS, Secretary, Industrial Trade & Communication Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of AR, K K Dwivedi, IAS, Secretary Industries, Government of Assam, N. Sivasailam, IAS, Immediate Past Spl Secretary Logistics, Patron, SCLA, Vandana Agarwal, IES, Sr. Economic Advisor, MoCA, Shashi Bhushan Shukla, IRS Member Traffic & Logistics, IWAI, Kabir Ahmed, President, BAFFA, Aparajita Banerjee, Advisory Board Member (EAST and NE India) ANZ India Business Chamber; all the eminent speakers of respective region talked about their region initiatives and new business opportunities. Dwivedi shared the initiatives by the government on building trilateral highways connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand and trade movement through waterways via Brahmaputra River from India to Chattogram …

In order to cater to the upcoming festive season demand, Gati-KWE has revamped its express distribution, warehousing, and supply chain management services. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the company expects robust 50 per cent growth in volumes during the October-December festive season. The company is actively building capacity, strengthening its supply chain and delivery capabilities to cater to the expected volume rush. “We are further augmenting our express logistics capacity by two-fold for the upcoming festive season. Our decision to expand resources and service bandwidth by hiring additional trucks is a consequence of our experience and understanding of the market underlined by our commitment to efficiently accommodate the increased and dynamic demands of our customers during this period. As we go about doubling our capabilities, we are also giving utmost attention to COVID-19 care and safety and ensuring 100% adherence to precautions for our staff members, operators, partners, and all other stakeholders working with us,” said Bala Aghoramurthy, Deputy Managing Director, Gati-KWE Ltd. The company is aggressively promoting various offers to drive sales. These intense efforts are expected to significantly drive logistics volumes and demand in the festive season. Additionally, the changes in buying patterns suggest that consumer sentiment in India is gradually improving. According to the recent Mintel research findings, almost 30% of Indian consumers surveyed, plan to spend more on clothes and accessories followed by other goods.

To accelerate growth across Africa’s vast logistics ecosystem, Allcargo is leveraging its global expertise to undertake trans-country movement of big project cargoes in the world’s second-largest continent. Building close collaborations with partners, customers and stakeholders within Africa, the company has exuded a spirit of innovation while tackling complex projects like ODC transportation, water pipelines and power transmission lines. “Allcargo’s global aspirations are driven by its aim to create opportunities, drive partner progress, and lend its expertise to projects across geographies that transform economies and boost growth. It is this futuristic approach that has led the company to create a niche in Africa. Committing to the highest standards of safety and zero compromise on compliance, Allcargo is set to prove its mettle as a trusted logistics partner in helping Africa scale new heights of growth,” said Rahul Rai, Business Head – Projects & Engineering Division, Allcargo Logistics, on the sidelines of the 15th CII – Exim Bank Digital Conclave on India – Africa Project Partnership. With a network of 300 offices across 160 countries and a wholly-owned global subsidiary ECU Worldwide, Allcargo has a presence in most African trade hubs. The company worked on key infrastructure projects across six African countries during the Covid-induced lockdown. In Tanzania, Allcargo handled follow-ups with Government Procurement Services Agency (GPSA) for payment of shipping line charges, exemption regularisation, TAN road permits for oversized project cargo, customs clearance, loading permits, pickup and delivery of shipments for the regional Rusumo Falls hydropower project. In Burundi, Allcargo took care of follow-ups with OBR (Burundais des recettes) for exemption regularisation, clearance through single customs territory and payment of shipping line charges. The company also arranged border clearance and empty …

Vikash Khatri, Founder, Aviral Consulting is of the opinion that by the end of FY 21 the logistics industry will be on a normal growth trajectory with a lag of one year. Explaining how, he continues, “We are approaching towards mid of FY 21 and the situation is still not normal. Although most of the economic activities have started inspite of the growth in COVID-19 cases but a normal situation is still far-off. Our estimate about transportation sector is aligned with ICRA’s estimate of contraction by 18-20 per cent. If we break down volume trends in month over month, we find that April was a completely washed out month, while transportation activities in May were about 45-50 per cent normal. Since June there is continuous improvement in month over month volumes and it is currently hovering around 80 per cent of normal volume. In last five months, decline in EXIM has also directly impacted hinterland transportation volumes. Once we extrapolate these volumes for FY 2021 with continued improvement in subsequent months, we see overall contraction in road transportation to the tune of 20 per cent.”

The transportation companies have been burdened with high fuel rate which exists despite such low rates of crude in international market. The effect or benefit of falling crude in international market has not percolated to this sector at all while all the benefit is being passed on to state-owned refining companies. According to Surendra Jeet Singh, Managing Director, Pinkcity Logistics, it is not a great business decision on part of the government. He adds, “In times of pandemic, the state should subsidise the sectors of industries which are stressed and the government could have helped the sector by assisting on fuel prices and helping with the direct state taxes form the major part of overhead and operational cost. No benefit has been provided by the government to help a fleet owner to maintain the staff during the pandemic. Logistics sector, particularly road, if not provided with these benefits can take more than next three quarters to see an upside.”