Union Minister of State for Shipping (I/C), Shri Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated the ‘Direct Port Entry (DPE) facility’ of V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust by unveiling the e-plaque.

While addressing the inauguration ceremony through video conference, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya said that this is a noteworthy step towards reducing logistics cost and increasing the velocity of the cargo. DPE will help in increasing Ease of Doing Business for the exporters, as the facility will bring efficiency and reduce dwell time, lower tariff cost and improve the competitiveness of shipper in the international trade.

The state-of-the-art Direct Port Entry (DPE) facility would enable direct movement of containers from factories, without intermediate handling at any CFS, thus facilitating the shippers to Gate-In their factory stuffed exports directly to the Container Terminal on 24x7 basis. The facility is created in an area of 18,357 sqm inside the Truck Parking Terminal which was developed under the ‘Sagarmala’ for issuing customs clearance of export cargo i.e. Factory stuffed/e-sealed containers. It can handle 18000 TEUs per month. Indian Customs through the Central Warehousing Corporation, DPE facility will generate the Let Export Order (LEO) under a single roof without any hassle. A dedicated team of CWC and Customs officials, in association with VOC Port, will serve Tier-II, Tier-III (AEO) certified EXIM clients.

Earlier, the factory stuffed (self-sealed) containers were taken to one of the container freight stations (CFSs) / Inland Container Depot (ICD) operating in Tuticorin. The CFSs operate between 10 am to 8 pm on working days only. Because of it, there was considerable delay in admitting the self-sealed export containers into the container terminals. Hence, Port developed the DPE facility to enable the export clearance of factory stuffed e-sealed containers on a 24x7 basis resulting in faster & cost-effective export admittance. Port entered into an MoU with M/S. Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to operate the facility for 30 years and the Customs department has also approved operating the DPE facility in the port.

Dr. Sanjeev Ranjan, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, in his address, said that the IT enabled infrastructure at the ports will definitely make our ports ,world class  ports aligning the ‘Maritime Vision 2030’ of Ministry of Shipping.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Shipping, Shri T. K. Ramachandran, Chairman, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Shri Arun Kumar Shrivastava, Managing Director, Central Warehousing Corporation and port officials were present in the virtual inauguration.

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YB/AP/JK