Free Trade Warehousing zones are the latest creation of the container trade of Jawaharlal Nehru Port
The potential of container port’s to spin off several downstream operations is evident in the vicinity of India’s foremost container port - Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) situated on the West coast of India. Already 26 container freight stations have mushroomed in its vicinity besides a large number of other operators have set up shop offering various marine related services. In this milieu another new dimension is being added. It is that of Free Trade Warehouse Zones (FTWZ).
Two players are in the race to become India’s first operator of FTWZ. Arshiya International and the other being that of Nikhil Gandhi’s promoted SKIL, who pioneered the first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the private sector at Mumbai. Arshiya International which was to have opened on May 26th this year suffered a setback in adhering to the schedule and SKIL’s FTWZ is well on its way of making it to the first place.
SKIL which set up a world class shipyard at Pipavav in Gujarat is ready to commission its FTWZ soon. Set up in an 80-acre plot the $ 46 million project will have a container handling capacity of half a million TEUs solely for exports through JNPT. Offering the latest handling equipment to ensure high productivity it is being designed so as to be able to ramp up its capacity in the shortest possible time from the date of commencement in order to take advantage of the burgeon traffic growth that will take place once JNPT’s 4th container terminal is commissioned and the expansion of the 3rd Terminal gets completed.
“All approvals are in place,” stated Ajay Khera, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of SKIL Horizon Ltd the company which is setting up the FTWZ. “Any cargo that can be containerized and shipped through JNPT can be generated here at our FTWZ. We can accommodate all types of activity such as palletisation, re-batching, assembly, packing, pick and pack, etc and also consolidation of export cargo which goes in containers to be shipped through JNPT. Several exporters, manufacturers and other players have come forward to set up shop in our FTWZ because of the various advantages it offers.
“Operating in the FTWZ they are entitled to get various duty exemption including customs, excise and octroi as well as cess. Besides, government also offers duty drawback and other assistance that are given for export related activities. We have finalized contracts with a host of players whose operations are related to automobiles, readymade, garments, electronics and electric appliance sector.”
60 per cent of the country’s container traffic passes through this major port and the government has taken the Private Public Partnership route to enhance the capacity of JNPT in order to meet the traffic which is expected to double in the next three years.