Have you ever wonder how any foreign brand products get delivered to you just by click. This all because proper logistics which helps in timely delivery of goods and services. Today we got the opportunity to visit India’s largest Inland Container Deposit The Thar Dry Port. We started from college around 10:00 am and we reached the location. We met two senior officials who gave us detailed and unique information through Corporate Video and followed by visit to the key locations to understand Operational Excellence. The Thar Dry Port is located in Sanand, Gujarat which was established in 2009 and it is the second port after the port that was established in 2001 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. It comes under Hasti Petrol Chemical Shipping Limited. The primary objective of this sea port is to de-congest sea port. It saves both time and cost for both importers and exporters. It is a generational business which was started by Mr.Ramesh Parekh and now is continued by Mr.Ruchir Parekh. They were initially in hospital, real estate and hospitality businesses. Thar dry port is spread across 33000 square yards. Thar dry port is ISO 9001:2015 certified. The port also provides customs and clearance. The port has inhouse IOC fuel station and repair and refer plugs. The port handles both exports and imports. The service is port to door. The port charges 150 USD per metric ton. The port 6000 TU’s till date. The port has 80 metric ton electronic weigh bridge. There are basically 2 types of container 20 ft and 40 ft container and the thar port has both the containers. They believe that people, partnership and performance are the reason for their success. One of the member talked how they are applying PODSCOB in real life. They have tie ups with ford, Tata, Honda, Suzuki, Bosch, Ford, Uflex, Arvind etc. now they are focusing on acquiring and developing more cold storage, vaults, steaming container and EOT cranes. The machine that lifts the container costs around 3 crores. We were taken to various spaces of port like the import storage area, domestic storage house, customs etc. we even learnt the basic humanity lesson empathy just by entering a container and understanding how humid is it from inside and how our workers do immense hardwork.
The thar dry port Owns PFT (Private Freight Terminal ) at ICD Sanand with 3 rail sidings with 1 Brake Van Siding to handle any rake movements uninterruptedly.
These 3 rail tracks are in built with IN -MOTION weighbridge of 120 MT capacity , illuminated with flood lights for smooth night operations . Dedicated to and fro double stack rake services to Pipavav from ICD Sanand.
The rake movements are dedicated to and from gateway ports to Mundra and Pipavav from Sanand & Jodhpur ICDS. Six dedicated rakes on long term lease ensures smooth, efficient ,faster turnaround for containers to clients for both Domestic and EXIM businesses.
We even understood the importance of packaging for exporting. Some of my friends also asked questions regarding importing less quantity of goods as a startup. Then the sir explained the concept of FCL(full container load) & LCL(less container load), and generally when you want to import less quantity at that time many people come together to buy that particular container. We even understood how every container is unique and different. Every container has unique id which can be tracked both by the sender and receiver. The maximum capacity of a 40 ft container is 38800kgs, if the senders send extra weight there are chances that the container tilts and might fall so it is important standard weight.
After taking all these learnings we were served with refreshments. And around 1 we left back to college.
In a nutshell this trip was all about learning how logistics happen in real life.
