Chief Ministers YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will formally commence the works of Machilipatnam Port to be constructed at a cost of Rs 5,156 crore on Monday. It may be noted here that former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy laid the foundation for the Machilipatnam Port on April 24, 2008. The proposed port with an annual capacity of 35.12 million tonnes, 4 berths to be set up to handle imports and exports. Port works are expected to be completed between 24-30 months, providing direct and indirect employment to nearly 25,000 people. The port will be expanded to 10 berths later to handle a capacity of 115 million tonnes per annum.

The Machilipatnam Port can turn to be instrumental in exports of fertilizers, coal, cooking oil, containers, agricultural products, cement, cement clinker, granite, iron ore coming from the districts of Guntur, Krishna, NTR, East and West Godavari of Andhra Pradesh and Khammam, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nalgonda and Warangal districts of Telangana. Once the works are completed, Andhra Pradesh will emerge as the gateway to Southeast Asia with 6 existing ports and 4 upcoming ports.

The present cargo handling capacity of 320 million tonnes per annum with 5 Non-major operational ports along with one major port at Visakhapatnam in our State will get an additional 110 million tonnes of cargo handling capacity by 2025-26 through the newly constructed ports according to officials.

“As of now we started our year with a target of 10% growth, but we have to wait and see how the things will pan out in the EXIM sector. Domestic, we are getting good demand and we are hopeful that in domestic we will be able to grow. But EXIM, we are waiting for the export-import scenario to get clear,” says V Kalyana Rama, Chairman & MD, Concor.

Currently, exports are not very encouraging but I cannot predict it for the whole year because people are expecting the things to improve. But as we see the headwinds in the Western markets are not very good. We are facing headwinds for the exports going from India, except for the primary agro products.

Value added services

Domestic is not having as good margins as EXIM. But in the revenue, if we see our domestic revenue percentage it is increasing year on year. So to get more margins, we are trying to add a lot of value-added services into the domestic.

We started first mail, last mail logistics. We started business support solutions. Now we started new products. So we call it material handling methodologies. Bulk cement we are handling in normal containers that is a very new product and it is picking up. So with these value-added services, we are trying to improve upon our margins in domestic and also we are trying to get into the distribution logistics very soon.

So, going forward, there may be a little strain on the margins but overall I expect the margins in this year to be maintained. We are working towards that because in EXIM, we started doing double stack direct from our depot. We got a depot called Dadri in Delhi, NCR region that is now connected directly to DFC (Dedicated Freight Corridor). And now we are not going through hub. Earlier we used to go through the hub of Kathuwas. Because of this, there is a lot of interest generated. The transit times have come down.

So, there is a very good interest developed among the customers because it is better than road movement now, even for light community cargos, time-sensitive cargos everything will come on to Dadri.

Even we started doing reefer double stack also. So, a lot of new products we are introducing into the EXIM sector.

With all that, we will be able to maintain our volumes in EXIM that will maintain our margins. So to go with at the beginning of this financial year, the guidance will be that we will try to maintain our margins. There may be a little pressures on margins, but our aim is to maintain the margins.

Containerisation

In domestic, we are seeing good growth that is where the containerization will come in. Exports, whatever exports earlier going on, they are going on in containers only because the western countries, they accept goods more in containers rather than in the break bulk and bulk mode.

So there the growth will come with the export-import scenario. How we are able to do well in our exports or how much we are importing, that decides the volumes whereas in domestic, the more and more goods can be containerized.

In the domestic side, there is a very good growth potential. With the new methods and the new products we are bringing into containers, there is a huge scope, like the bulk cement – handling of bulk commodities in normal containers. The size of this market is 400 million tons and we have tapped not even 10%.

So there is a huge market there to explore, to capture. It is a virgin market. There are certain headwinds for this, the container availability, because now we are encouraging Atmanirbhar Bharat in India and we are importing containers. The container shortage is there for domestic movement for us as of now. We are working along with railways and various other industrial units to overcome the shortage.

Gati shakti

We will be working with Gati Shakti scheme, wherever the new terminals are coming up, where we have to use the Gati Shakti, we are definitely using it and at the existing terminals, there is an established business practice. We have taken up a new terminal at a place called Mandalgarh near Kota under Gati Shakti so that we are developing under Gati Shakti.

And even terminals which are not on railway land parcels where we are directly purchasing land parcels and developing, there also we will take the advantage of Gati Shakti in developing all the support services. So there is no time frame for implementing Gati Shakti for all the terminals. Gati Shakti is a continuous process and the main idea of PM Gati Shakti program is to help logistics improvements and to reduce logistics cost in India.

Delhivery Ltd, India’s largest fully-integrated logistics services provider, will make a strategic investment in Vinculum, a global software leader enabling omnichannel retailing for D2C enterprises, brands, brand distributors, and quick commerce companies. The investment is the first part of a potential 2-stage deal that provides Delhivery the option to further increase its shareholding in the company after six months.

Vinculum is one of the early software companies from India, enabling brands to tap into the opportunity presented by eCommerce and Omni Channel. With the post covid industry and consumer shift, the company has scaled up into a leading SaaS Omni Channel software company working with over 400 brands across Grocery & FMCG, Healthcare, Beauty, Cosmetics, Fashion, and Jewelry in India, South East Asia, and the Middle East markets.

Direct-to-Consumer enterprises are a focus market for Delhivery, and the investment is expected to strengthen its position as a leading fulfillment solutions provider in the segment. Through this investment, the two companies will build a complete integrated stack to address the entire range of post-purchase needs of a D2C brand. A deeper integration with Vinculum’s industry-leading Order Management System (OMS) will be a first-of-its-kind fully-integrated E2E offering.

Commenting on the announcement, Rajaganesh S, Head of Supply Chain Solutions at Delhivery, said, “We congratulate the leadership team of Vinculum on building a truly world-class product that enables omnichannel retailing for brands, retailers while also powering fulfillment capabilities of 3PLs and online marketplaces. A strategic partnership with Vinculum strengthens Delhivery’s fulfillment solution to brands”.

Venkat Nott, Founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Vinculum Group, added, “We are delighted with the investment to be made by Delhivery in Vinculum. This lays the foundation for deep tech integration between both companies, tremendous collaboration opportunities, and immense business value for our customers.”

The investment is subject to the satisfactory completion of closing conditions.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday inspected country’s first elevated highway from an interchange of the Dwarka Expressway near Khedki Daula Toll in Gurugram to Dwarka in New Delhi.

Gadkari was accompanied by Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation and Planning (Independent Charge) and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh; Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation VK Singh; and Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. Delhi MPs Parvesh Verma and Ramesh Vidhuri were also present.

“With the commencement of this expressway, the connectivity between Gurugram and Delhi’s IGI Airport will be improved, as well as the project will have four categories of road transport, which are tunnels, underpasses, flyovers and flyovers overpass. The length of this road is 18.9 km in Haryana region and 10.1 km in Delhi region,” Gadkari said.

Rao Inderjit Singh said this is a big gift of the government for the residents of Gurugram.

“With the opening of this expressway, the road infrastructure will get a new expansion not only in Gurugram but also in the NCR region. The people living in the new sectors of this area will also be benefitted,” Singh said.

The construction of the Dwarka Expressway is in progress in four sections. The first section is in Delhi region from Shiv Murti in Mahipalpur to Bijwasan (5.9 km), the second is from Bijwasan Railway Over Bridge (ROB) to Delhi-Haryana border in Gurugram (4.2 km), the third in the Haryana region from Delhi-Haryana border to Basai ROB (10.2 km) and Fourth is from Basai ROB to Khedki Daula (cloverleaf interchange) (8.7 km).

Around Rs 2,507 crore will be spent on the construction of the first section in Delhi, Rs 2,068 crore on the section, Rs 2,228 crore on the third in the Haryana region, and Rs 1,859 crore on the construction of the fourth section.

61 per cent of the first section in the Delhi region, 82 per cent of the second, 94 per cent of the third, and 99 per cent of the fourth section in the Haryana border have been completed. The work in both the sections of Haryana region will be completed by next month.

Eight-lane access-controlled Dwarka Expressway is being built at a cost of about Rs 9000 crore.

There is also an eight-lane 34-meter wide elevated road on a single pillar of nine kilometers in length, which is the first elevated road of its kind in the country. In Haryana, this expressway will meet at Pataudi Road (State Highway-26) near Harsaru and Farukhnagar (State Highway-15A) near Basai. Apart from this, it will also cross the Delhi-Rewari rail line near Sector-88 (B) of Gurugram and Bharthal. The expressway will also connect Sector-88, 83, 84, 99, and 113 to Dwarka Sector-21 along with the proposed Global City in the Gurugram district.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) announced that AIM weekly service will change its port rotation, by adding Hazira call.

The new rotation will take effect as from Bea Schulte, arriving in Hazira on 14 June 2023.

The current port rotation is,

JEA – MUN – NSA – CMB -DUR – TEM – TIN – APP – DUR – JEA

The new port rotation will be as follows,

JEA – MUN – HZA – NSA – CMB – DUR – TEM – TIN – APP- DUR – JEA

By the change, ONE aims to provide more option of INDIA ports to customers for smooth and better transport solution.