DMIC to launch logistical data bank service in July

The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is planning  to  commercially launch in July a logistics data bank (LDB) to  help ensure timely     delivery of consignments by removing bottlenecks. The DMIC and Japanese IT major NEC Corporation have formed an equal equity joint venture, DMIC Logistics Data Bank, to establish the LDB that will handle tracking and viewing of container movement across all ports to the inland container depots (ICDs) and end-users. "The LDB project will be first implemented at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), where we have already carried out the trial-runs.

"We have carried out similar trials at Pipavav Port and at some ICDs as well. We will now commercially launch the service from JNPT from July," DMIC Chief Executive and Managing Director Alkesh Kumar Sharma said here. He said the visibility brought in by the LDB service would induce competition among the logistics stakeholders, which in turn will set benchmarks for the entire supply chain. "The LDB service would provide the visibility and transparency of the exim container movement in the Western corridor, starting from the ports and covering the entire movement through rail/road till the ICDs and container freight stations (CFS)," he said. The LDB will track the movement by way of integrating the software of different service providers and tracking containers through installation of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. "We want to commercially launch the services in Mumbai and Delhi after which we will take it to other major ports in the first phase," Sharma said.

The LDB project has been developed after extensive consultations with the stakeholders and support from the Shipping Ministry, JNPT, Railways, Tariff Authority for Major Ports, the National Highway Authority, Indian Port Association and the Director General for Foreign Trade.