With the liberalization of Indian economy, last few years have seen considerable growth in import and export volumes. With the new modes of transportation and increase in international trade and containerization, the ports were getting congested.
Further, with widespread industrialization and economic growth, the imports for use in hinterland and exports originating from there have increased over time. It was difficult for importers or exporters based in the hinterland, to come to a gateway port for clearance of imported or export goods.
With the development of multi-modal transport system with its stress on greater facilitation to importers/exporters, a need was felt to develop Inland Container Depots (ICDs) or Container Freight Stations (CFSs). These were to essentially function like a dry port. These ICDs/CFSs were to function as common user facilities offering all the services for Customs clearance like any other port.
EDI facility of online customs clearance, online tracking, IT enabled services like RFID..etc boosted ICDs and CFS' to be most cost effective and customer oriented. Artificial Intelligence and data driven technology also given ICDs and CFS operator many insight to minimize the multiple cost of handling and optimize the operations procedure. Time bonded functioning and complete standard specification declaration guidelines made it easy for new entrepreneurs to enter into this segment.
It became easy to establish an ICDs and CFS' but, operational excellence and profit maximization should be our aim. Operational excellence is back boned by Facility Design, Facility layout and seamless operations along with handling minimization. We discussed in detail regarding all this here.
Inland Container Depot and Container Freight Station as Profit Center
ICDs
CFS
Dry Ports
Customs Act
