Kolkata: In a significant stride towards boosting security of the containers, the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) will soon introduce container scanning technology which will detect the presence of any unwanted article in them without needing to open them manually for checking purposes.
"We have already placed order with a foreign company for procuring the technology. The civil work is presently in progress. We are hopeful that by March-April next year, we will be able to introduce it. The technology is being imported by five ports across the country and KoPT is one of them," KoPT chairman Vinit Kumar said.
Kumar on Saturday introduced Logistics Data Bank's (LDB) services for easy tracking of container movement across the country.
"Till date, our end customers had no means to know the position of his consignment during the transit. Now, he will be able to track the exact position of the vehicle. The ports along the western coast has seen around 25 percent improvement in turnaround time and has had a significant improvement in bringing
down the logistics cost. We hope to reap similar benefits," Kumar said.
As part of the LDB project, each container will be attached to a Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) and tracked through RFID readers. There will be readers at the Container Freight Stations (CFS), toll plazas on the highways and at all port gates for a hassle-free container tracking.
It will have an app integrated and as soon as the end user types the number of the vehicle in which his container is being ferried, he will be able to track it.
"It will bring in transparency and would fix responsibility of every single stakeholder involved during the transit process," Kumar added.
The project is implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle called Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Logistics Data Services Limited (DLDSL) — jointly (50:50) owned by the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Trust and Japanese IT services major NEC Corporation throughout India.