Indian Ports Association (IPA), an apex body of state-owned major ports under the Shipping Ministry, has become a member of the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA) in a clear sign of the government’s focus on digitalisation of the maritime trade processes and enhance ease of doing business.

“In order to keep abreast of the technological developments happening globally, it is important that IPA should become part of the international port community network. We endeavour to integrate with other international port community systems (PCSs) to ease trading across borders. In fact, we wish align PCS1x with the 2030 vision of IPCSA,” said Abhijit Singh, Executive Director of IPA.

“The IPA brings with it experience and knowledge on how to develop a National Port Community System. The inclusion of Indian Ports through PCS1x platform into IPCSA is a new milestone in IPCSA’s development and will support in the implementation of new global initiatives,” said Hans Rook, Chairman of IPCSA.

Also read: Immigration to soon go live on PCS1x platform

India has been working for many years on its digital infrastructure and enabling of e-governance. PCS1x has been rolled out by IPA to offer a single window for the port and maritime community for sharing data and information. PCS1x has grown in scope and penetration over the last year and a half with significantly better utilisation than its predecessor.

Since going live in December 2018, the new PCS1x has tripled the user base and reduced the turnaround time of (Customs) batch mode of electronic data interchange (EDI) exchange from 30 minutes to less than four minutes.

Over 27 stakeholders have role-based access to the new PCS1x hosted on Cloud, giving them a better user experience as they interact with the ports, terminals, each other and the end user. It has provisions for translating messages of different standards to facilitate meaningful exchange of data with multiple external systems.

Also read: Cargo trips to and from ports set to go Uber and Ola way

The Indian PCS is robust, highly scalable and flexible. While the PCS in other nations generally cater to the EXIM trade of single port/terminal, the Indian PCS1x architecture is designed in such a way that it not only caters to the 12 major ports but also to other 200 non-major ports, of which eight are currently on-boarded.

PCS 1x is addressing the way in which information is passed on real-time basis by integrating with various stakeholder systems, bringing speed, transparency and efficiency leading to reduction in errors and faster processing times.

Currently, the 12 major ports have fully implemented the PCS1x with over 16,000 plus users transacting. Moreover, private ports including Mundra, Pipavav, Hazira, Kattupalli and Dahej have commenced adoption.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW