New Delhi, Oct 27 (UNI) Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday inaugurated the system of “Direct Port Entry Facility at VO Chidambaranar port at Thoothukudi of Tamil Nadu, through video conferencing.

Describing as a noteworthy step towards reducing logistics cost and increasing the velocity of the cargo, Mr Mandavia said the DPE will help in increasing Ease of Doing Business for the exporters, as the facility will bring efficiency and reduce dwell time, lower tariff cost and improve the competitiveness of shipper in the international trade.
Later, the Shipping Ministry officials said the state-of-the-art Direct Port Entry (DPE) facility would enable direct movement of containers from factories, without intermediate handling at any CFS, thus facilitating the shippers to Gate-In their factory stuffed exports directly to the Container Terminal on 24x7 basis.
'The facility is created in an area of 18,357 sq mt inside the Truck Parking Terminal, which was developed under the 'Sagarmala' for issuing customs clearance of export cargo that is factory stuffed or e-sealed containers which can handle 18000 TEUs per month,' the officials further said.
Under the new system, the Indian Customs through the Central Warehousing Corporation, DPE facility will generate the Let Export Order (LEO) under a single roof without any hassle. A dedicated team of CWC and Customs officials, in association with VOC Port, will serve Tier-II, Tier-III (AEO) certified EXIM clients.
Earlier, the factory stuffed (self-sealed) containers were taken to one of the container freight stations (CFSs) or Inland Container Depot (ICD) operating in Tuticorin. The CFSs operate between 10 am to 8 pm on working days only and due to this there use to be a considerable delay in admitting the self-sealed export containers into the container terminals.
Therefore, the Chidambaranar Port developed the DPE facility to enable the export clearance of factory stuffed e-sealed containers on a 24x7 basis resulting in faster and cost-effective export admittance as well.
The Port entered into an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Public sector undertaking Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to operate the facility for 30 years and the Customs department has also approved operating the DPE facility in the port.
Ministry of Shipping Secretary Dr Sanjeev Ranjan said, 'The IT-enabled infrastructure at the ports will definitely make our ports a world class ports, aligning the 'Maritime Vision 2030' with the Ministry of Shipping.
UNI AKS RJ 1610