Container train operators at sea over JN Port’s proposed SOP

JN Port’s move to improve India’s position in the World Bank’s logistics index by issuing a standard operating procedure (SOP) has not gone down well with container train operators (CTOs).

The CTOs feel that all their business emerging out of the port will now be routed to Container Corporation of India (Concor).

According to the Association of Container Train Operators (ACTO), JN Port issued an SOP effective last week as part of its attempts to reduce the overall dwell time, aimed at improving trade. However, its implementation is on hold for now, as CTOs raised the matter with the Mumbai-located JNPT.

If implemented, the SOP would have required CTOs to clear the port area within three days and use the road to drive their containers to Dronagiri Rail Terminal (DRT), which is owned by Concor, Kamlesh Gupta, President, ACTO, told BusinessLine .

The other CTOs that use JN Port and have custom-bonded terminals, including inland container depots (ICD) and/or container freight stations (CFS) in the hinterland, include Hind Terminals, Gateway Rail Freight Ltd, India Linx, Container Rail Road Services and Pristine Logistics.

This arrangement of moving containers by road to DRT will be carried out by Concor, according to the SOP.

Moreover, additional charges for the movement of these containers to DRT, which is a distance of about 3 km, shall be borne by the respective CTO.

However, Gupta said, this will basically shift the bottleneck from one point to another.

At present, each CTO decides where and when the offloaded boxes are to be moved, which entails paperwork involving shipping lines, customs, and importers, who have to file the entry bill.

Also, each CTO usually waits for its trainset to be fully loaded with 90 containers for a particular destination, and then moves its train out of the port to the CFS in the vicinity or the ICD, usually located in North India, closer to the importer’s factory or an industrial zone.

Terming the SOP as “draconian” and “impractical”, Gupta said JN Port’s instructions basically amount to handing over all JNPT business to Concor. Also, imports cannot be evacuated within three days, nor can CTOs afford to pay additional charges for shifting containers from JN Port to DRT, said ACTO.

The SOP also makes it clear that JN Port’s responsibility will be over once the container moves to DRT.

Basically, ACTO feels that JN Port is asking CTOs to create space in the port by moving containers to Concor’s DRT.

So, effectively, the containers bound for terminals of IndiaLinx or Hind Terminals will go to a Concor terminal, from where they will get loaded to a Concor train and reach Tughlakabad, which again is Concor’s ICD, Gupta said.

While ACTO is on the same page with JNPT with regard to lowering the dwell time, they have asked the port to take multiple stakeholders on board, such as shipping lines, customs and importers. It has also proposed a solution wherein JNPT calls all stakeholders and tells importers about the SOP, and introduces a penalty system.

Gupta said stakeholders could be asked to file the papers concerned for evacuation of containers from the port within a certain number of days. Otherwise, a penalty that rises over a period of time could be imposed.

JNPT has embarked on this move to lower congestion, which will improve India’s position on the World Bank’s logistics index.

For this, it is banking on two projects — one with Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) and another one with Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Corp (DMICDC). Both are helping study the overall port ecosystem to help speed up trade.

The study by FIEO measures the time taken by each activity. As a result, JNPT has steadily reduced dwell time for imports to 29 hours by road, Neeraj Bansal, Deputy Chairman, JNPT, told Business Line, adding thatas part of that study, the long time taken by ICD operations had emerged as a concern area.

Simultaneously, JN Port is working with DMICDC in a project that includes RFID tagging of 70-80 per cent of containers that exit and enter JNPT, operations and their functioning of ICDs and the time taken.

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