Connected port communities can transform how nation does business

By Darshana Abayasingha

Digitising landside operations of the maritime industry – port community systems – brings significant wins leading to the creation of a national logistics portal. Such systems could be programed to serve individual exporters and importers, leading to seamless port operations supporting greater and faster trade.

India’s national maritime port community system connects all major ports and terminals, encompassing over 29 stakeholders. All ports connect through this system and share data. The system had greatly benefitted traders, whereby ports now become just another stakeholder with minimal bureaucratic delays.

Saudi Arabia too has moved to digitise its port community system, and this enables the system to communicate and share relevant data with other trusted systems, like the one in India. Such communication and sharing of data between port operations of two countries once again enhances trade and security.

Renowned IT and logistics consultant Abhijith Desai said: “Through a national logistics portal, we can shift from port-centric operations to more exporter importer-centric operations. Ports become just another stakeholder in that sense. Two ports or countries can communicate through this system. The possibilities are limitless, but naturally, there must be limitations that are decided by governments. These can easily expand to becoming digital corridors. These systems are now going live, driven and supported by Governments in India and Saudi Arabia,” said.

Digitalisation and technology advancements have driven significant transformation in Indian ports that have revolutionised container handling processes. From automated cranes to stacking of containers and minimising paper, Indian ports have benefitted from improved yard utilisation, greater safety, speed, security, and more. For businesses, this results in increased predictability of movements, fewer handling errors and damages, and reduced cost.

Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port is the 22nd busiest port in the world, but still adopts a largely analogue approach to its operations. The Ports Authority has called for expressions of interest to implement digital solutions at Colombo to boost efficiencies. With Indian interest also in the project, Desai feels Sri Lanka will benefit from an India-linked solution, also considering that 85% of Colombo’s traffic is transshipment cargo with a strong focus on India. He notes India has almost moved to paperless transactions at its ports, as berthing schedules and related operations have all been moved online.

Desai said: “Ship comes, the berth site is already in place, and there is no need for yards within the port. Berthing is usually a tedious process. But we have delivered significant efficiencies at the JNPT Port in India, which handled 7.5 million tons of cargo in February this year. There were times it used to take two to three days to assign a berth because people take meetings over these and then some people can have certain priorities. Now, everything is online. There is no need for meetings. Your requests are already there, you know who is going to come in, where it is going to come. The system is flexible, so then we came out with the maritime single window as required by the IMO. We have developed that module and all declarations are happening on the system. The Directorate General of Shipping is already doing single window declarations using the system.”

“The domain expertise is all in-house. We run terminals, inland container depots, dry ports, and more. So, the solution is stronger and flexible. It has been architected in such a way that point solutions can be added anywhere. This was done in Saudi Arabia too. You could technically also revolutionise your start-up industry by broad-basing the solution,” Desai added.

Sri Lanka’s port automation project has been coming for over eight years, and Desai opines that this was partly due to the lack of policy consistency over the past few years due to changes in the political system. With stability in place, Desai hopes Sri Lanka would now look to get the project rolling, as the country and its industries will have a lot to gain. Sri Lanka’s expression of interest had garnered calls from over 14 parties from around the world.

“I feel a solution closer to home works best because we know each other well. Our work styles and cultures are similar and we understand each other. It could be any form of operating model the Government prescribes to procure, but an Opex model will put some skin in the game to the operator too that he will have to satisfy. So, there is a better chance of the system succeeding. One must really see what is good, what works. Speed in a Public-Private-Partnership may be higher, because the Government is no longer going to spend that money. But there will have to be some arrangement for fee collection. I think it really depends upon the Government’s vision, how they want to do it. Part of that will be answered by how soon they want it,” Desai opined.