The fourth day of CII EXCON 2019 witnessed a session on Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC) and infrastructure for Armed Forces where the industry experts shared their insights on efficient project cargo movement and emerging requirements & smart technology solutions in defence.
In his presentation, Ayush Agarwal, manufacturing & supply chain centre of competence, McKinsey & Company, said, “The transport infrastructure in India has seen a paradigm shift in recent times. The key driving factors to the shift are demand, delivery and cost. The introduction of large infrastructure initiatives has led to an increased demand which has resulted in improved infrastructure to facilitate the delivery of project cargos and ODCs. With multimillion projects being set in India and across the globe, making innovations to minimise the cost and searching out alternative routes has become the need of the hour. The industry players have capitalized on these growth factors and the future of the industry seems quite optimistic.”
The session further discussed procedural developments in project cargo, challenges faces while handling heavy lifts ports and cargo carrier innovations in road, rail and inland waterways. Industry experts also shared their views on managing project cargo complexities – road, rail and inland waterways transport and next steps towards project cargo logistics excellence in India.
Geeta Lakshmi, GM, Atlas Logistics, said, “ODC has a specialised nature of handling a shipment to move from point A to point B. The use of IoT is required to ease the connectivity while delivering an ODC. One of the most important factors while handling ODC is the cost involved as each project needs specialised equipment and infrastructure for each level of delivery. Hence, to get the handle the ODC right, one needs to define the gravity for the cargo on the ground and make a movement.”
Addressing the key logistics opportunities and challenges, Biju Thomas, MD, Sevenseas Global Express Logistics, said, “While delivering an ODC, the experience is a very important aspect one should consider. Despite getting all the theories right, things can still go wrong.”
“One of the key challenges faced by the industry is the implementation of policies by the authorities. Today, about 20-25 documents are required along with many gate passes to get a custom clearance. ODC cargo is the indicator of the growth of a country as the number the ODC cargos moving in and out of the country indicate the direction where the industry is heading. So, if we have more of ODC cargo, it is a clear indication that the country is progressing, as a lot of capital goods are flowing in and out of the country.”, he further added.
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