Japanese IT and communications provider NEC Corporation has established a 50-50 joint venture with the DMIC Trust, which oversees infrastructure developments on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, to provide a new container location service.
DMICDC Logistics Data Services will provide shippers and transport operators with logistics visualisation services enabling them to perform real-time searches on the location of containers being transported by rail or road between Delhi and Mumbai. The joint venture said the service would make significant contributions to shortening shipping lead times, reducing inventory levels and improving the accuracy of production plans.
It is the first commercial project to come out of the DMIC’s Smart Community initiative, which is being promoted jointly by the Indian and Japanese governments.
The new company will affix RFID tags to shipping containers being loaded and unloaded at ports in Mumbai. It will also install RFID reader/writers at locations such as port entrances and exits, toll plazas on the expressway between Delhi and Mumbai, and inland container depots where customs inspections are carried out and cargo reloaded.
Information on the position of the containers will be gathered from the RFID data in real time via a cloud-based logistics visualisation system, and there are also plans to link the new system with rail transit and port management systems to provide information on freight train running times and container management status at the port.
“Development of logistics infrastructure in India is struggling to keep pace with the country's rapid economic growth, causing issues such as longer shipping lead times and delays, and difficulties checking progress with goods in transit,” said Hiroshi Hashimoto, general manager of the transportation and logistics solutions division at NEC. “We are aiming to establish advanced logistics infrastructure in India through this new company, in order to contribute to the country's economic development and to the Indian government's key economic policy, 'Make in India'.”
Since 2010, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has played a key role in helping NEC and DMIC Trust to establish the new company.
