Chennai port is India’s first major port to have a paperless container movement using Radio Frequency Identification Device to enable container trailers enter port without any manual intervention.
The RFID tag will have all relevant details that were hitherto carried in paper form.
Najib Shah, Chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs, launched the facility today at the DP World container terminal inside Chennai port.
“This is a significant step to improve efficiency and reduce congestion. This is one of the measures towards the Government’s ultimate goal of ease of doing business,” said Cyril George, Chairman of the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT).
At present, manual verification of documents takes nearly six minutes per trailer at the gate. This will be reduced to one minute as the RFID tag will carry necessary information , B Vimal, Traffic Manager, ChPT, told BusinessLine .
The project is a collaborative effort of the National Association of Container Freight Stations (NACFS), Customs and ChPT, he said. MS Arun, Chairman (Chennai Chapter), NACFS, said the Container Freight Station will issue a RFID tag for export container trailer with information such as vehicle number, driver name, shipping bill and supporting documents.
On swiping, the RFID reader at the port entry displays all the information to the official at the gate for clearance.
The technology will enable monitoring and tracking of trailers and containers on real time basis, he said. The RFID tagging is to be implemented in other ports also.