The port officials said that the custom department mandated with screening has just one scanner at present, leading to long queue of trucks carrying goods and commodities .
To reduce the truck turnaround time and meet security concerns at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), the Union shipping ministry has decided to install three more scanners in next over six months in the port premises.
The port officials said that the custom department mandated with screening has just one scanner at present, leading to long queue of trucks carrying goods and commodities .
"Apart from the helping meet the security issues, additional scanners will also improve the turnaround time of trucks leading to faster movement of goods and commodities," said Neeraj Bansal, deputy chairman, JNPT.
JNPT, the biggest container port in the country, handling around 44% of the country's containerised cargo, is ranked 31 among the top 100 container ports in the world. As per the available data, the port handled 64.03 million tonne of cargo during the 2015-16 with 0.35% growth as compared to the previous year's traffic of 63.80 million tonne. Its total income for the 2015-16 stood at Rs 1,989.68 crore as against previous year's Rs 1,809.41 crore, a growth of 9.96%.
"The additional scanners will be very helpful in reducing the time and costs for faster and economical operations," said Bansal. The average dwell time at JNPT has reduced to 1.5 days, near the accepted international benchmark of 1.2 days. Similarly, the average export dwell time has come down to 65 hours from the earlier 88 hours, he said.
According to the industry experts, certain commodities require container scanning by customs department, which often leads to higher turnaround time. "We have identified the location for installation of additional scanners in consultation with the customs," a JNPT statement said.
In another initiative, the port has standardised the gate processes by implementing the RFID based tagging of the containers. RFID, or radio frequency identification, uses electromagnetic fields to track tags attached to a container.
While two of its terminals have completed the RFID-based gate automation work, the rest is expected to get completed by October this year. "This will help the trader to know exactly where this goods is and the tentative time it should reach him," said another JNPT official. Earlier, the most the traders knew at the most the point-to-point location of the cargo and not the precise location.
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