ODCs require 20-25 docs to get customs clearance: Biju Thomas at CII EXCON 2019

December 17, 2019: Managing director of Sevenseas Global Express Logistics, Biju Thomas was talking at a session on ‘Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC) and infrastructure for Armed Forces’ at the 10th edition of CII EXCON 2019 in Bengaluru last week.

The 5-day exhibition on construction equipment organized Confederation of Indian Industry "(CII) had 1250+ exhibitors including 390+ foreign companies from 21 countries and country pavilions from China, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Turkey and the UK.

“One of the key challenges faced by the industry is the implementation of policies by the authorities. Today, about 20-25 documents are required along with many gate passes to get customs clearance. ODC cargo is the indicator of the growth of a country as the number the ODC cargos moving in and out of the country indicate the direction where the industry is heading. So, if we have more of ODC cargo, it is a clear indication that the country is progressing, as a lot of capital goods are flowing in and out of the country,” he said.

Ayush Agarwal, manufacturing & supply chain center of competence, McKinsey & Company, said “The transport infrastructure in India has seen a paradigm shift in recent times. The key driving factors to the shift are demand, delivery and cost. The introduction of large infrastructure initiatives has led to an increased demand which has resulted in improved infrastructure to facilitate the delivery of project cargos and ODCs. With multimillion projects being set in India and across the globe, making innovations to minimize the cost and searching out alternative routes has become the need of the hour. The industry players have capitalized on these growth factors and the future of the industry seems quite optimistic.”

The session also discussed procedural developments in project cargo, challenges faces while handling heavy lifts ports and cargo carrier innovations in road, rail and inland waterways.

Geeta Lakshmi, general manager, Atlas Logistics Pvt Ltd, said, “ODC has a specialized nature of handling a shipment to move from point A to point B. The use of IoT is required to ease the connectivity while delivering an ODC. One of the most important factors while handling ODC is the cost involved as each project needs specialized equipment and infrastructure for each level of delivery. Hence, to get the handle the ODC right, one needs to define the gravity for the Cargo on the ground and make a movement.”