ASSOCIATION OF MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT OPERATORS OF INDIA

Weekly News 08.11.2013—14.11.2013 Volume 1, Issue 33 Inside this issue:

Delegation under ministry of shipping to visit Japan 1 RBI allows third-party payment for export & import 1

Shipping Ministry's efforts to reduce Port logistic costs by introduc-

ing mid Sea Cargo operation by using Barges and Floating Cranes

2

Major Ports should look for alternative cargoes to tackle negative

traffic growth, says WTWF 3

India to open first ICP along Bangladesh border 3 India and Japan to strengthen ties in shipping sector 4 Plea for major port sought at Ramaiahpatnam in Prakasam 4 B K Mandal to hold additional charge of CMD SCI 4 Antwerp port investing in top-notch infrastructure 5 Minister of Railways launches dual cab freight diesel locomotive ‘Vijay’

5

Richa Industries order book touches Rs 100 cr 5 Water transport workers wor-ried over negative growth in ports

6

Maersk: Container shipping showing early signs of rebound 6 GE Shipping’s net surges 97.8 pc

6 Aviation insurance to emerge as growing segment in General Insurance sector

7

Packing & securing cargo in con-tainers seen as larger problem 7

More funds required for eastern corridor: DFCC 7

Humor 8

A delegation under the leadership of G.K. Vasan, minister of shipping will be visiting Japan from November 7 to November 12, on the invitation of Akihiro Ohta, minister of land, infrastructure

transport and tourism, government of Japan.

The proposed visit will enhance the India-Japanese cooperation and give a fillip to better coordination and cooperation between the two countries in the shipping sector. Expertise of Japanese in port operations, ship recycling and shipbuilding will be utilized by the Indian ports and shipyards, a statement from the VOC Port Trust at Tuticorin said. The delegation includes Vishwapati Trivedi, IAS, secretary (Shipping), R Srinivasa Naik, director,

M.A. Bhaskarachar, CMD of Ennore Port and other officials of ministry of shipping.

The delegation will have discussions with the Japanese government for better coordination between two countries and to enhance the Japanese interests in utilizing the facilities of Indian Ports, more particular of Ennore and Chennai Ports. The delegation would have discussions for obtaining Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funding for the Outer Harbour project of VOC Port, Tuticorin. The delegation would also be visiting the Port of Yokohama and Port of Nagoya to see the

port operations and the latest technologies being utilized in these two ports, the statement said.

Japanese automobile manufacturing companies use Chennai and Ennore ports for importing automobile components through containers for their factories. Japanese company Metal One (Mitshubishi group) is importing steel coils used for automobile through Chennai Port in the break bulk form. Around 240 Japanese companies have developed business in and around Chennai in the last decade, the statement

said.

Delegation under ministry of shipping to visit Japan

In order to ease procedures, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted third-party payment for

export and import transactions.

The apex bank also permitted banks to make payments to a third-party, an entity other than the

buyer or the seller, for import of goods, but with certain conditions.

The procedure has been liberalised taking into account evolving international trade practices, the

central bank said.

While the RBI has put a cap of $10,000 in case of imports, there is no limit for exports.

According to the apex bank, third-party transactions should take place through the banking channel

and with a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-compliant country.

"Normally, payment for exports has to be received from the over-seas buyer named in the Export Declaration Form (EDF) by the exporter, and the payment shall be received in a currency appropri-ate to the place of final destination as mentioned in the EDF, irre-

spective of the country of residence of the buyer," the RBI said.

Similarly, payments for import should be made to the original

overseas seller of the goods, it added.

RBI allows third-party payment for export & import

Shipping Ministry's efforts to reduce Port logistic costs by introducing mid Sea Cargo operation by using Barges and Floating Cranes

Page 2

Mr. B. K. Mansukhani,

Rishi Shipping appre-

ciated the efforts of

Ministry of Shipping

for supporting Rishi

Shipping in introduc-

ing Chinese system of

handling over draft

vessels in Kandla Port

and celebrating the achievements of the major ports in the function

in Bangalore on November 16, 2013.

In this regard Mr B K Mansukhani will be rewarded at the all-India

major and minor ports meet for ‘showcasing’ his innovative idea of

handling cape size vessels at cheaper cost with Kandla already

reaping its benefits by leaps and bounds. No major port including

Kandla has the capability to handle such huge ships requiring a draft

of 19 metres.

The entire shipping trade appreciate the efforts of the Ministry of

shipping and expecting now all Major ports to follow the path shown

by Kandla Port.

Kandla Port is the first major port seriously thought on handling

cargoes in mid sea by barges and with the support of port

administration trade brought more than 50 barges of 1500/2000 mts

capacity to handle over draft vessels in mid sea to achieve permissi-

ble draft of 12.00 meters and then berthing on 12.00 meters draft

available in Kandla Port. Since Panamax and Cape size vessels are

gearless and need support of cranes, finally Kandla Port arranged

two floating cranes and first cape size vessel mv. Copper smith

discharged 137537 mts coal from 30-4-2013 to 10-5-2013. This

vessel brought the positive signals and media appreciated and articles

published in most of news papers about Kandla Port created history

by handling cape size vessel and this news sent positive signals in

shipping trade and every importer decided to make good bye to

supramax and went for chartering cape size vessels for discharging in

Kandla Port. Kandla Port handled 1.2 million tonnes of imported

coal and iron pillets from 8 cape size vessels from May to October in

5 months. Two more floating cranes are arriving and trade expect

Kandla will handle minimum 5 million tonnes cargo from cape size

vessels every year.

In the past six months it has successfully handled 8 cape size vessels

with two floating cranes and 32 barges with handled tonnage being 1.2

million tones. Two more cape size vessels are to arrive at Kandla by

this month. What the trade says is that this miracle has been done by

none other than Mansukhani’s own Rishi Shipping.” “It was my long

cherished dream to see Kandla handling cape size vessels. I have been

telling the port management, trade and even the Shipping Ministry as

to how this was possible for the past one decade, but every time I

found this to be utopian. But, when I acquired two floating cranes and

barges with heavy investment and showed the result, everyone is now

after cape size. Even the Union Shipping Ministry is directing all the

major ports to copy Kandla seeing my successful experiment,’

Mr. Mansukhani said.

He said that his idea had increasing acceptance and he was happy to

learn that some other companies also would be signing concession

agreements with KPT to procure costly imported floating cranes.

Confirming this, a top official of the Port Trust said that the port

would be specially propagating this idea at the meeting as it was

innovative and first time successfully tried at Kandla. Explaining his

arithmetic, Mr. Mansukhani said that Indian major ports face draft

restrictions and smallness of their navigational channel. It was because

of this reasons our major ports were handling only supramax which

required only 12.4-metre draft. But they carry only 55, 000 mts, while

cape size ones needing a higher draft can handle even VLCCs. China is

doing only this. Think of it. Its four large size VLCCs carry four lakh

tons of iron ore from Brazil to China paying only 4.5 USD/mt freight.

They discharge at anchorage in barges which in turn empty their bulk

cargo at captive jetties of the industries concerned. The logistic cost

comes to 8 USD/mt. Thus China pays 12.5 USD per mt in transport-

ing iron ore from Brazil to China.’On the West Coast, it is Kandla’s

neighbouring port of Mundra which has 19 metre draft. The two

other ports with deeper draft are Gangavaram and Krishnapatham.

Interestingly their tariff is much higher, but still they succeed as they

had either higher draft or capability of handling bigger vessels. There

is a famous saying in shipping world: bigger the better.

Whatever you do,

Good or bad

People will

Always have

Something

Negative to say !!

Page 3

Major Ports should look for alternative cargoes to tackle negative traffic growth, says WTWF

The Major Ports are underperforming due to the ban on mining

activities and are suffering from negative growth, which is not a

healthy trend at a time when they are going in for capacity addition,

according to the Water Transport Workers’ Federation of India

(WTWF).

The Federation stressed that the Ports should seek alternative

cargoes to surmount the problem.

The port sector was way behind the projected targets regarding

capacity addition, modernisation of equipment and deepening of

draught in the ship channels due to various issues, the General

Secretary of WTWF, Mr T. Narendra Rao, said.

Port services had worsened due to government negligence and

because of poor vision in fixing the cargo targets at government-

controlled ports, resulting in them achieving reduced throughput in

2012-13 against the set target, Mr Rao noted.

In order to achieve the target of 3,130 mt as per the Maritime

Agenda 2010-20 and to attain the 12th Five-Year Plan target of

1,229.24 mt, the Major Ports should be equipped with modern

facilities, he added

India's second interna-

tional-standard multi-use

Integrated Check Post

(ICP) and the first along

the Bangladesh border

will be opened to people

at Akhaurah in Tripura

Nov 17. The first such

ICP was inaugurated in

Attari in Punjab along the

Pakistan border by then union home minister P. Chidambaram in

April last year. Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will Nov

17 inaugurate the Akhaurah ICP, built at a cost of INR 73.5 crore.

An official of the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) said, "The multi

-purpose ICPs would boost trade with neighbouring countries, be-

sides facilitating trans-border passenger traffic.” He said, "Trade and

movement of people between Bangladesh and India's northeastern

states would boost by a large extent after the opening of the Akhau-

rah ICP. This is the first of its kind along the Bangladesh border.”

It is the second biggest land port along the Bangladesh border after

the Petrapole-Benapole check post in West Bengal. Akhaurah is one

of the most important international trading land ports in eastern

India, with an average of 200 Bangladeshi trucks loaded with goods

entering Tripura every day. A high-level 18-member inter-ministerial

team led by Gouri Kumar, secretary, border management, recently

inspected the Akhaurah ICP, two km west of the Tripura capital. An

official report of the union home ministry said, "In the first phase,

seven ICP are being set up at Raxaul and Jogbani (in Bihar) along the

border with Nepal, Attari (in Punjab) along the border with Pakistan,

Moreh (in Manipur) along the border with Myanmar and Akhaurah (in

Tripura), Dawki (in Meghalaya) and Petrapole (in West Bengal) along

the border with Bangladesh.”

The report said, "The ICP are being commissioned to secure India's

borders against interests hostile to the country and to put in place

systems that would interdict such elements while facilitating legitimate

trade and commerce and as a part of an overall strategy for more

improved border management.” The ICP, being built at expenditures

ranging from INR 35 crore to INR 170 crore - with a total outlay of

INR 635 crore - would be sanitised zones with dedicated passenger

and cargo terminals and space for regulatory agencies besides

necessary modern facilities under one roof.

Besides passenger terminal buildings, customs and immigration

facilities, weigh bridges, security and scanning equipment, currency

exchange booths, internet facility, cargo process building, cargo

inspection sheds, warehouse and cold storage, health and quarantine

facilities, clearing agents, banks, scanners, closed circuit television,

public address systems, isolation bay, parking, cafeteria, hotels and

other public utilities would be available.

India to open first ICP along Bangladesh border

India and Japan to strengthen ties in shipping sector

Page 4

Plea for major port sought at Ramaiahpatnam in Prakasam

The Centre should reconsider its decision to

build a major port at Dugarajapatnam in Nellore

district and instead stick to the original plan of

having the port at Ramaiahpatnam in Prakasam

district, as the expert opinion is in favour of it,

many trade associations in Guntur and Prakasam

districts have said in a memorandum to Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh recently. The Guntur

Chilli Merchants' Association, the AP Spinning

Mills Association, the Indian Tobacco

Association, the AP Prawn Farmers' Welfare

Association and several others said in the

memorandum that Ramaiahpatnam should be

chosen for construction of the major port, as

export cargo worth nearly Rs 15,000 crore was

originating from the two districts of Prakasam

and Guntur. Besides, the port could also receive

cargo from the Telangana districts.

The associations pointed out that the techni-

cal committee of experts appointed by the

Centre had chosen three sites for location of

the port – Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam

district, Ramaiahpatnam in Prakasam district

and Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district. The

committee preferred to have the port at

Ramaiahpatnam as it was found to be the

most suitable. The other two locations were

rejected on security or ecological

considerations. It was reported that the

government had initially chosen Ramaiahpat-

nam, but subsequently the decision was

changed in favour of Dugarajapatnam.

The petitioners said there was already a

functioning port at Krishnapatnam in Nellore

district, and

a little be-

yond there

were the

ports of Ennore and Chennai in Tamil

Nadu. Therefore, it would not make

business sense to have another major port

in the same area. Besides, the port at Duga-

rajapatnam will be too close to the SHAR

Centre at Sriharikota in Nellore district.

K.V. Rosaiah, president of Guntur Chilli

Merchants' Association, P.S Rao, secretary

of AP Spinning Mills' Association, and other

office-bearers of the associations urged the

Prime Minister to take a relook into the

matter and change it in favour of

Ramaiahpatnam.

B K Mandal to hold additional charge of CMD SCI

State-run Shipping Corporation of India said B K Mandal, Director

(Finance) will hold the additional charge of Chairman and Managing

Director.

“Ministry of Shipping informed Shipping Corporation of India that B

K Mandal- Director (Finance) of SCI, will hold additional charge of

the post of the CMD of the company for a period of three

months," the company said in a regulatory filing to the stock ex-

change.

The company said, he has taken charge from October 01, 2013 to

December 31, 2013 or till a regular incumbent is appointed or until

f u r t h e r

o r d e r s ,

whichever is

earliest.

India and Japan have proposed to strengthen ties in the shipping sector and enable Japanese companies to utilise

facilities at Indian ports especially for importing automobile components. The move comes at the backdrop of

Minister of Shipping GK Vasan's visit to Japan from today till the November 12 to meet Akihiro Ohta, Japan's

Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. "The visiting delegation will have discussions with the

Japanese government for better coordination between two countries and to further enable various Japanese

companies to utilize facilities at Indian Ports, more particular of Ennore and Chennai Ports. Shri Vasan will also

lead discussions for obtaining funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Outer Harbour project of VOC Port,

Thuthikoodi," said a shipping ministry.

Vishwapati Trivedi, Secretary (Shipping), M.A. Bhaskarachar, chairman of Ennore Port Ltd and other shipping ministry officials are also part of

the Indian delegation which will also visit the Port of Yokohama and Port of Nagoya in Japan to see the port operations and the latest

technologies being utilized in these two ports. Japanese automobile manufacturing companies like Toyota, Mitsubushi, Isuzu, Nissan and

Toshiba have been using Chennai Port for importing automobile components through containers for their factories located in Chennai.

Japanese company Metal One (Mitshubishi group) is importing steel coils used for automobile through Chennai Port in the break bulk form.

Around 240 Japanese companies have developed businesses in and around Chennai in the last decade.

Several Japanese companies have also shown interest in enhancing their use of the Ennore Port. At present, Nissan Motors India and Toyota

are the major Japanese Companies using the Ennore Port facilities for their export. Nissan Motors has exported about 3 lakhs cars while

Toyota has so far exported 42,000 cars from Ennore Port. The Japan government had earlier evinced interest in developing the proposed

Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor as part of the Peninsular Region Industrial Development corridor (PRIDe) of India. Ennore Port has been

identified as one of the main logistics hub in this industrial corridor development. JICA has already commenced a study for the purpose.

Antwerp port investing in top-notch infrastructure

Page 5

Minister of Railways launches dual cab freight diesel locomotive ‘Vijay’

The Minister of Railways Mallikarjun Kharge

flagged off the first ever Dual Cab 4500 HP

Freight Diesel locomotive, ‘Vijay’ from Diesel

Locomotive Works (DLW), Varanasi, a produc-

tion unit of Indian Railways. The minister said

that it is not only in the area of production that

DLW is creating new milestones. Keeping in

mind the requirement of Zonal Railways, DLW

has also delivered in the area of technology up-

gradation and designing of new variants of loco-

motives. Be it Dual cab passenger locomotive

WDP4D, Hotel load locomotive, 5500 Horse

power locomotive WDG5 and now the first

ever Dual cab diesel freight locomotive

WDG4D, DLW has always lived-up to it is a

promise. The very fact is that the design of

WDG4D is a completely indigenous effort of

DLW and RDSO. Arunendra Kumar, Chairman,

Railway Board said that DLW has not only

increased its production in large but also

developed latest state-of-the-art technologies.

Building of this WDG4D High Horse

Power freight locomotive is a wonderful

breakthrough not only for DLW but for

Indian Railways and the country also.

Indian Railways has steadily been moving

towards higher speeds in freight operations.

With the freight trains touching 100 kmph

and future strategies aiming for even higher

speeds, there is a need to upgrade the

existing levels of crew comfort and visibility

in freight locomotives. Indian Railways has till

now been working with the single cab

versions of diesel-electric freight locomo-

tives. These locomotives have been very

effective in the sub 100 kmph operations.

However with the increasing horsepower

levels over the years, the locomotive lengths

have increased and their profiles have

become wider. The increase in length and

envelope of the locomotive affect visibility

and therefore there is a need to introduce

d u a l

cabs on

f r e i g h t

locomo-

tives as

well.

T h e

locomotive has been designed to implement

the Indian Railways’ efforts at increasing the

speed of loaded trains to 100kmph. It can

run at 105 kmph and can be used to haul

passenger trains in emergencies. Since the

future would belong to dual cab freight

locomotives, this model has been designed

to retain as many elements as possible of

the passenger dual cab being built by DLW.

This standardization in the manufacturing

elements will enable IR to easily move into

series production after successful prototype

trials.

Richa Industries order book touches Rs 100 cr

Richa Industries announced that its order

book in the pre-fabricated metal building

space has touched Rs 100 crore. The textile

company has recently announced its plans to

diversify into pre-engineered building

business. The company secured a Rs 18-crore

turnkey warehousing project from Indian Oil

Corp. The Delhi Metro Rail Corp has placed an order worth Rs 12

crore to construct two metro depots in Faridabad.

Richa Industries will build 14 warehouses on a turnkey basis for Bihar

State Warehousing Corp. The company has already acquired the

requisite land for the project valued at Rs 45 crore. Currently, the

company is working on over 100 projects with companies such as

Crompton Greaves, L&T, Essar Steel, India Bulls and Walco Engineering.

Between now and 2025, the port of Antwerp

and the Flemish government are to pump

more than 1.6 billion euros into infrastructure

projects. "Large-scale construction projects

such as the new lock for the Deurganck dock

and the Liefkenshoek rail tunnel will ensure

sustainable, effective infrastructure and permit further develop-

ment of the port," says Port Authority CEO, Mr Eddy Bruyninckx.

A whole series of infrastructure projects is currently being carried out

on behalf of the Port Authority. In addition to construction of the Deur-

ganck dock lock and the Liefkenshoek rail tunnel, maintenance works are

being carried out on roads and bridges, renovation work is being

done on docks, locks and old port sites, new port areas are being de-

veloped and investments are being made in buildings and equipment.

Deurganck dock lock: the biggest lock in the world, for the very

largest ships.

Heavy investments are being made in order to further improve the

accessibility of the port. The future Deurganck dock lock, which will

accommodate the first ships in 2016, is necessary in order to ensure

access to the left bank and permit further development on this side of

the river. The port already has the largest lock in the world, the

Berendrecht lock. With a depth of 17.80 metres, the Deurganck dock

lock will offer an even greater draught.

Liefkenshoek rail tunnel: leading rail link

Antwerp is one of the most important rail ports in Europe, with some

250 trains travelling to and from the hinterland every day. Once the

Liefkenshoek rail tunnel is completed, this number will increase signifi-

cantly. The 16.2-km long rail tunnel will unite the two sides of the

Scheldt and improve connections with the Netherlands, France and

Germany. The tunnel will also contribute to further growth of the port

and make an essential contribution to raising the proportion of rail

transport in the modal split

Water transport workers worried over negative growth in ports

Page 6

Maersk: Container shipping showing early signs of rebound

The Water Transport Workers Federation of India has expressed

concern over the negative traffic growth in major ports.

They feel that it is not a ‘healthy trend’ at a time when the ports are

heading for capacity additions.

As the major ports are not able to find the required cargo due to ban

on mining activities, the Federation demanded that the ports should

review the capacity addition targets keeping in view the availability of

cargo to be handled in future.

In order to address the negative growth, T. Narendra Rao, General

Secretary of he Federation, said the ports should explore the

possibility of alternative cargoes.

However, the port sector, he said, is far behind from the projected

targets of its capacity additions, modernisation of equipments,

deepening of drafts in ship channels on account of various issues.

The Federation, which observed a demands day on November 7 in all

major ports highlighting various issues, alleged that the Government’s

neglect of port expansion has led to deteriorating port services,

obsolete equipment and infrastructure which resulted in decline in

the quality of port services.

According to him, there is a lack of vision even in fixing the cargo

targets of major ports as is evi-

dent from the achievement of 135

million tonnes during 2012-13

against the target of 245 mt.

The Federation, he said, failed to

understand on what grounds that

the Maritime Agenda 2010-20 has

been fixed with a target of 3,130

mt.

MODERN FACILITIES

Rao said major ports should be equipped with modern facilities so

that the target of Maritime Agenda and that of the 12th Five Year

plan target of 1,229.24 mt can be achieved.

The federation also felt that adequate draft is an essential factor for a

sea port to attract modern/big vessels. However failure in achieving

the target of dredging affects the port capacity expansion.

Complementing the Government to set up two new major ports in

Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the Federation urged the

authorities to develop these ports under Major Port Trust Act

instead of BOT/PPP model.

A.P. Moller-Maersk

raised its 2013 earn-

ings forecast after a

s t r o n g t h i r d

quarter, a good sign

for the container shipping industry and the global economy. The

group raised its forecast for full-year net profit to $3.5 billion, up

from $3.3 billion, and reiterated it expected Maersk Line to easily

beat last year's figure of $461 million.

Container volumes carried by Maersk Line rose 11 percent in Q3.

"The global market showed encouraging growth of around 5 percent

in Q3... showing early indications of demand picking up," Maersk said

on Wednesday in its earnings report.

Chief executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in a conference call he

expected annual growth in the global container shipping market to stay

under 5 percent in the coming years. "We want to grow with the

market," Andersen said. "We are not interested in gaining market

share in a low-cost situation."

Maersk Line reported its revenues dropped to $6.78 billion, impacted

by a 12 percent year-over-year decrease in freight rates. Nonetheless,

net profit rose 11 percent to $554 million, the company said, besting

average forecasts of $521 million in a Reuters survey, due to cost

cutting and lower fuel prices.

"It seems that there is light at the end of the tunnel," said Sydbank

analyst Jacob Pedersen, noting that the report reflected early signs of

an improvement in the global economy.

GE Shipping’s net surges 97.8 pc

The Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd’s (GE Shipping) consolidated net

profit for the quarter ended September 30 shot up by 97.8 per cent

to Rs 160.63 crore due to higher revenues and foreign exchange

gains, the company said.

Its net profit in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal had been

Rs 81.20 crore.

Besides, the company’s consolidated total income from operations

registered a jump of 16.3 per cent during the July-September quarter

to Rs 773.83 crore from Rs 665.34 crore in the corresponding quarter

last year.

Page 7

Aviation insurance is likely to emerge as a key

growth area in the coming years with new

airlines starting operations and existing players

expanding fleet size. Though the current market size

of aviation insurance stands at around Rs 500

crore, growth of airlines industry will push the premium growth in the

near future.

"Aviation insurance is an emerging segment in the general insurance

industry. We expect much growth coming from addition of new aviation

players in the market and expansion of fleet by existing players," Manik

Nehra, Senior Manager - Aviation Insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insur-

ance said. According to the general insurer, domestic aviation industry is grow-

ing at an average growth rate of around 15 per cent per annum and is likely to

add around 450 aircraft in the next five years. Even the number of corpo-

rate jets are growing in domestic skies as more and more business houses

are acquiring own aircraft for business travel needs, industry experts said.

"Currently, around 30 jets belonging to various corporates are insured by

us. We are also the lead insurer of the recently launched regional

carrier Air Costa. We aim to be a significant player in this

segment," Nehra said, adding that the company is working with re

-insurers like Allianz, which is one of the leaders in this segment,

and GIC Re to provide re-insurance cover to aviation assets as it

is a highly reinsurance driven business. "Claims are not much from

the aviation insurance segment. The portfolio is profitable," a

public sector insurer said.

Country's largest insurer New India Assurance is a major player in

this segment.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of Reliance General Insurance

Rakesh Jain said the aviation insurance is largely reinsurance

driven and a niche product. "Currently, the segment contributes

less than one per cent of the total industry. But, the pie is

growing," Jain said. Fleet expansion apart, among the new players

Tata SIA Airlines is expected to be the first major companies to

start operations next year.

Aviation insurance to emerge as growing segment in General Insurance sector

THE eastern arm (Ludhiana to Dankuni) of

the Railways’ ambitious Dedicated Freight

Corridor project is likely to face funding

hurdles as officials worry over completion of

the third and last phase of the project.

"We might have to explore the option of market borrowing. We will just

have about $ 0.65 billion left for the third phase," a senior Dedicated

Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) official said, adding that the

amount would be sufficient to complete only civil works. "Additional

funds would be required for signalling and electrification," he said.

Of the total 1,839 km eastern corridor, 1,130 km is funded by the World

Bank, with the funding capped at $ 2.725 billion (about Rs 16,350

crore, at current exchange rates). The remaining stretch is to be

completed through funding by the Ministry of Railways and via the

public-private partnership (PPP) route.

While the Ministry is expected to provide about Rs 4,000 crore

for the Mughalsarai-Sonnagar stretch, the Sonnagar-Dankuni

section is to be funded through the PPP route.

No bids have been invited so far for the PPP section as the finan-

cial model or revenue structure is yet to be finalised, according to

Ministry officials.

More funds required for eastern corridor: DFCC

Packing & securing cargo in containers seen as larger problem

Packing and securing cargo in containers is a

larger problem and a new code of practice for

packing cargo transport units (CTUs) would

come into force soon, delegates at the recently-

concluded seminar organised by the

International Cargo Handling Co-ordination

Association (ICHCA) here said.

ICHCA is an industry body that chaired the

International Maritime Organization’s (IMO)

working group on container weighing amend-

ments to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)

regulations.

According to IMO data, around half a dozen

national maritime authorities operate container

inspection regimes, which mainly target

dangerous goods shipments. Although this data

was a sample, only 0.01 per cent of container

shipments, a worrying 30 per cent were

found to be wrongly packed.

"The IMO published its first guidelines in

1997, which had a print run of about 1,000

copies, and it took about a decade for the

IMO to get rid of them. The information

contained in it was simply not very good,"

said Mr Bill Brassington, owner of ETS

Consulting.

The need of the new guidelines came after

several high-profile maritime accidents involv-

ing dangerous goods on containerships, such

as the MSC Flamini, he said.

"The key stakeholders agreed that the revi-

sion should focus on transparency and ease

of use,

r a t h e r

t h a n

t a k i n g

regulatory

approach," said Mr Chris Welsh, General Secre-

tary of the Global Shippers Forum.

He said that today there was a lack of

knowledge right through the supply chain,

which was the main reason for improper

packaging.

"Go back a few decades, and companies

such as Unilever would employ 30 people

in its shipping department who had in-depth

knowledge of how to pack cargo. Today

these companies have a few people in a

logistics department," he said.

Page 8

Humor

C/o. CKB, 1st Floor,

20, Raja Bahadur Mansion,

Ambalal Doshi Marg., Fort,

Mumbai - 400 023.

Tel. : +9122 6637 0021.

Fax : (91-22) 6637 0022

Email : info@amtoi.org

Editorial Team:

Mr. Xerxes P. Master

Mr. Vivek Kele

Following the enactment of the Multimodal Transportation of Goods Act, 1993, AMTOI Associa-

tion of Multimodal Operators of India) was established in the year 1998.

The main objects of the Association are to

• To organize Multimodal Transport Operators at national level

• To study the issues faced by MTOs and seek resolution with appropriate authorities

• To promote multimodal transport services in foreign trade

• To improve the quality of such services and reduce transaction costs

AMTOI is registered as a non-profit making body under the Indian Companies Act and its core

managing committee consists of seven members. The committee is assisted by a Board of Advi-

sors consisting of the representatives of Government and public sector organizations.

We at AMTOI have always endeavored to have a harmonious maritime community to bring con-

sensus amongst all segments of our community, whilst making representations to various authori-

ties. AMTOI has always tried to bring together all the segments of the maritime community under

one common platform to promote Multimodalism in India. Our members are shipping lines, ship-

ping agents, freight forwarders, transporters, CFS operators and custom house agents.

ASSOCIATION OF ASSOCIATION OF ASSOCIATION OF ASSOCIATION OF MULTIMODAL MULTIMODAL MULTIMODAL MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT TRANSPORT TRANSPORT TRANSPORT

OPERATORS OF INDIAOPERATORS OF INDIAOPERATORS OF INDIAOPERATORS OF INDIA

Catalysing Multimodalism

www.amtoi.org