Mangaluru: The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) Logistics Data Services Ltd. (DLDS) is planning to digitally track bulk cargo after it covers all Indian major ports with digital container tracking solution by December.

Launching the digital container tracking solution at New Mangalore Port here on Wednesday, DMICDC managing director and CEO Alkesh Kumar Sharma told reporters that trucks transporting bulk cargo would be affixed with RFID tags for tracking.

Tracking cargo, container as well as bulk, is essential to reduce logistics cost from the present 14% of the GDP to international standards of 8% to become competitive in the export market, Mr. Sharma said. While cargo transportation itself takes time, one mode to address it was through good highways and the other through tracking wherein every stakeholder would know the exact arrival timing of the cargo, he noted.

DLDS chief operating officer Surajit Sarkar said digital container tracking launched at Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai in July 2016 has now covered all ports, except Kolkata and Haldia, which would be covered by December. By now, 11 million out of over 13 million containers in the country have been tracked, he said.

It is not just within the port premises containers are tracked real-time, but in transit too with every toll plaza having RFID tag readers and also customers’ premises. Thus it becomes easy to monitor container cargo movement and prevent possible misuse. They would be tracked as long as they are in India while DLDS collects service charges of ₹145 for export and import containers.

Containers with RFID tag would also have e-seal of Customs thereby enabling enforcement agencies to check seal tampering. Mr. Sharma said after digital tracking, container handling time at JNPT came down from 97 hours to 47 hours adding to Ease of Doing Business and reducing logistics cost to 12% of GDP.