The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust plans to commission two dry ports at Wardha and Jalna in Maharashtra by June 2019. The Jalna port will come up close to Aurangabad, with an annual capacity of 20,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The Wardha dry port will come up near Nagpur, with another 20,000 TEU annual capacity. Around ₹400 crore will be spent on each of the ports. JNPT has also decided to start similar dry ports in Nashik and Sangli. While Wardha will cater to Nagpur, Jalna will be beneficial to Aurangabad and the proposed port at Sangli will help Kolhapur.
“Development work on Jalna and Wardha has already begun and should be ready,” Neeraj Bansal, chairman, JNPT said. He was making a presentation on the ports to Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari.
The Shipping Ministry has been trying to develop dry port infrastructure to improve the turnaround time of ships calling at major ports in the country. A dry port will help logistics companies consolidate their operations and complete export and import procedures at inland locations that are closer to farms and factories. “It provides customers better control over the cargo,” the official said.
Rather than getting stacked at port warehouses for Customs clearances, containers can now be transported via road and rail networks to the inland dry port, where customers or exporters can get clearance for containers. “The dry ports will lead to 20% reduction in costs for exporters, faster clearances and better control over cargo,” the official said.
Mr. Bansal said that as ports increase direct port delivery mechanism, container freight stations will have to change their business models to sustain themselves.
