NICDC Logistics Data Services (NLDS), a joint venture between the Government of India, represented by the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust, and NEC Corporation announced the extension of its Logistics Data Bank (LDB) services at 9 major Special Economic Zones (SEZ) across India to improve last-mile container visibility.
Major SEZs include Visakhapatnam, SEEPZ Mumbai, Surat, MEPZ Chennai, Cochin, Kandla, Noida, Mangalore, and Dahez SEZ. With container tracking services now live at these locations, exporters and importers will be able to get near-real-time location information on container movement from ports to SEZs.
“The need for more accurate end-to-end container visibility was apparent when exporters and importers experienced significant delays in container movement. With end-to-end container tracking, users can now easily identify the bottlenecks and ease their operations.
Last-mile container visibility stands in line with NLDS' objective of improving the export and import (EXIM) trade and reducing the logistics cost,” said Ichiro Oshima, CEO, NLDS, commenting on the occasion.
The idea for NLDS' service extension was first proposed during NLDSL's Logistics Data Bank (LDB)'s Open House Session held in January last year under the chairmanship of Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. During the event, stakeholders in the EXIM industry requested to install RFID readers at industrial zones, manufacturing hubs, and SEZs, which would enable them to receive timely updates on last-mile cargo and improve supply chain efficiency.
Subsequently, NLDS proposed to install RFID readers through various consultations and discussions with key stakeholders from the industry and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. NLDS approached individual SEZs separately to conduct site surveys prior to the RFID system going live.
As of today, site surveys have been conducted for the nine (9) SEZs between January and February 2021, and the installation of RFID readers was recently completed.
Speaking on the development, A Bipin Menon, Development Commissioner, NOIDA Special Economic Zone, highlighted the importance of the LDB project stating that, “Technology has been playing a crucial role in revamping major businesses and sentiments of the industry. Such trade facilitator initiatives during turbulent times will help the manufacturing, warehousing and trading sectors at SEZs to reduce their logistics cost and improve tracking of their container movement.”
“We are in conversations with multiple SEZs across the country to explore the possibilities of installation of RFID readers for providing better and end-to-end visibility for exporters and importers,” said Surajit Sarkar, COO, NLDS.
The NLDS container tracking solution and its analytics report have significantly benefited various stakeholders in supply chain operations by considerably reducing the port dwell time and overall transportation time for export and import of shipments.
