Category Archives: Rail/Road

Emphasising on high logistics cost in India as compared to US and China, Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport, Highways and MSME, Government of India points to all stakeholders, at the webinar held by Domestic Air Cargo Agents Association of India (DACAAI) , “Unless we reduce this logistics cost, we cannot be competitive in the world. We are working in road sector by creating Delhi-Mumbai express highway wherein work has already started in 32 out of 62 pockets. When ready, the trucks can reach Delhi-Mumbai in just 28 hours instead of 48 hours earlier and they would be able to make 9 trips instead of 4 trips which will bring down the cost. “Movement of agri-horticulture, fruit vegetables, lichees from Bihar, pineapple from Nagaland, oranges from Nagpur, grapes from Nashik, fish, prawns and other perishables is important to increase domestic air cargo volumes. However, it won’t be viable by air unless the airfreight cost and other related handling costs get lowered,” he states. According to him, “Cargo operators should work out full cargo flights for fruit and vegetables to get the best rates from airlines. Even old disused aircraft with defence and can be converted to freighters. By using domestic air carriage of perishables farmers can get the all India market and fair value for his produce as well as operators can get profits.”

After receiving an overwhelming response in its first two digital conclave, CargoTalk is back with its third conclave on July 7, 2020 from 10 am to 12:15 pm. The virtual summit is divided into two one-hour sessions and will have eminent speakers from trade. The summit will focus on the how digitsation has helped air cargo industry to sustain in the business during the Covid-19 pandemic in these grim times. And, Covid-19 impact on road logistics, especially with the rise in freight rate as most of the trucks still stranded. Speakers will include Saurabh Kumar, CEO, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo, Amar More, Director, Kale Logistics Solutions, Keku Gazder, CEO, AAICLAS, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI Express, Ashok Goyal, Managing Director, BLR Logistics and Aditya Shah, Executive Director, V-Trans India.

The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has launched its parcel, courier and cargo services (PCC) to increase its revenue and bail itself out of the existing losses. The services will be made available at all bus stations and in the first phase will begin with 104 buses and 140 stations. An app will also soon be developed to enable the booking and delivery of parcels and cargo. Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Transport Minister, Telangana, says, “During the pandemic, the revenues of TSRTC fell sharply. We plan to overcome those losses by generating additional revenue. TSRTC has generated an income of Rs 4 crore per day as against the sum of Rs 12 crore which is used to be generated before the lockdown.. Through PCC, TSRTC is expecting a revenue of Rs180 to Rs200 crore.” “There will be three to five people, depending on the need, at each station,” informs Minister.

Indian Railways has transported 82.27 million tonnes of essential commodities, in the month of May, compared to 65.14 million tonnes in April, showing an increase of more than 25 percent. Indian Railways has transported 175.46 million tonnes of essential commodities from April 1, 2020, to June 1. From April 1 to June 9 Railways loaded 12.56 million tonnes of food grains as compared to 6.7 million tonnes in the same period last year. To ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items, Railways are running time-tabled parcel special trains on select routes. Total 1,37,030 tonnes of consignment has been loaded in these parcel trains. Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc in small parcel sizes is very important during the lockdown. In order to fill in this vital need, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by e-commerce entities and other customers including state governments. In order to ensure the timely delivery of essential commodities for citizens and goods vital for energy & infrastructure sector, Indian Railways has maintained its freight corridors fully functional in spite of the Covid-19 lockdown and has been successful in meeting the needs of both the households sector and industry. From March 23 to June 9 more than 31.90 lakh wagons carried supplies to keep the supply chain functional. Of these, 17.81 lacs wagons carried essential commodities like food grains, salt, sugar, milk, edible oil, onions, fruits & vegetables, petroleum products, coal, fertilizers etc. throughout the country.

After the resumption of exports to Bangladesh through Bengal’s Petrapole land port, stakeholders in the neighbouring country have expressed despair, saying the situation has led to a crisis in industrial output and skyrocketing of prices of perishables there. According to the stakeholders, unavailability of drivers to take cargo to Bangladesh and problems related to parking of trucks in Petrapole has led to the crisis. “Even though trade has resumed, but due to complexity in your systems, export-import is not taking place to its potential of 500-700 trucks a day. A mere 10-20 trucks crossing the border will not achieve any business purpose,” Mafizur Rahman Sajan, President, Benapole body, said in the letter to the FIEO.

With the recommencement of exports to Bangladesh through Bengal’s Petrapole land port, 100 local trucks got permission to go into the neighbouring country. The trade will be allowed for 12 hours daily. All Bangladesh-bound vehicles stranded in and around the Petrapole check post, around 80-km from Calcutta, will be cleared by June 14. The local administration has also asked traders to be ready with another pool of 50 drivers outside the ICP area for any exigency. Bilateral trade through this land port, the largest facility on the Indo-Bangla border, was stopped on May 2 after two days of operation, following protests by locals who were afraid that truck drivers and labourers might spread the coronavirus infection. According to FIEO, “A large number of trucks are stranded near the border due to the lockdown. We have agreed to follow the instructions given by the administration.”

DBS Bank India in partnership with TCIL has introduced the DBS RAPID (Real Time APIs by DBS) solution for truck drivers, thereby enabling them to receive payments instantly. Given the large volumes of transactions, and round-the-clock nature of the operations, the bank proposed setting up a UPI-based real-time payments solution which is available 24x7x365. With this solution, TCIL truck drivers receive an instant credit into their bank account, which they can then swipe at terminals or withdraw cash using ATMs. Through DBS Bank India’s custom API solution, TCIL will now be able to save 45 lakh hours annually. DBS RAPID (Real-time APIs by DBS) and UPI payments, provides a seamless integration with the company’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The solution has been set up under the aegis of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has announced that it will introduce a new train-handling charge on all trains handled at Mundra port from May 1. The new charge has been set at Rs2.60 lakh plus GST per rake handling in/out with 48 hours and it is being introduced to utilise this infrastructure at Mundra port.

The service providers are facing a cash flow crisis because of not getting payments on time from their clients. To tide over the crisis, apex bodies; Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India, Association of Multimodal Transport Operators of India and The Air Cargo Agents Association of India has decided that for the next six months, logistics service providers will handle shipments only against 100 per cent advance payments by their clients. Generally, the payment by an exporter or importer to service provider is done only after handling the shipment and paid in advance. The service provider pays the bill and waits for the payment from their clients.

Due to coronavirus pandemic, Indian railway will end 2019-20 with 15.7 million tonnes less than the previous financial year’s 1,212.56 million tonnes. Indian Railways was on its way till February to not just meet but surpass its freight loading target. But because of the pandemic, the railways virtually shuts down operations and earnings from freight loading have declined from Rs1,25,354 crore in 2018-19 to Rs1,23,225 crore in 2019-2020 fiscal with a loss of Rs 2,129 crore. In February this year, the railways loaded 106.5 million tonnes of goods which was more than around 6 million tonnes in February last year. With the national transporter managing to load 1,108 million tonnes by the end of February this year, around 5 million tonnes more than what it was this time last year, it looked good to achieve its target by March 31. However, after the three-week lockdown in the country, freight loading dipped by almost 3 per cent with the railways carrying around 15.7 million tonnes less goods in March than the previous year. The railways, however, continues to be the lifeline of the country, supplying essential commodities even through the nationwide lockdown. From March 23 to April 4, it transported 1,342 wagons of sugar, 958 wagons of salt and 378 wagons/tanks of edible oil across the country.