MUMBAI: Container Freight Station Association of India (CFSAI) members held an interactive session in Mumbai recently wherein they discussed the importance of safely handling storage and transportation of hazardous goods, as well as other key developments of the trade. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Adarsh Hegde - President, CFSAI. Also present were Mr. Naresh Parekh (Past President) and other members of the association.
CFSAI had invited a domain expert from Hong Kong, Capt. Girish Munjal, who has over 30 years’ of experience in training and development. As an ex-P&O Ports quality expert and trainer he is currently the head of Quality Assurance and Certification with Anglo Eastern.
Capt. Munjal presented a case study on one of the recent disasters in China, at the Ruhai Warehouse in Tianjin.
This tragedy of unimaginable magnitude caused heavy loss of lives and infrasturcture in the region. The case study included live videos taken by local survivors. Capt. Munjal mentioned that although the official inquiry into the incident is yet to be completed, the cause is believed to be the storage of hundreds of tonnes of highly explosive cargo, stowed adjacent to each other.
Taking cognizance of the study, CFSAI President Mr. Hegde, sited the importance of learning from this event and preparing as well adopting newer and stricter methods of managing such type of cargo. He also mentioned that CFS members of the region have a very good track record of safety and transportation and that all should enhance this quality further to always maintain high standards of operations. He emphasized on the importance of continous training and awareness about the process, at all times. To ensure this is engraved in the day to day operations, CFSAI decided to form an in-house sub-committee of experts who will not only impart training by visiting various facilities but would also carry out voluntary audits.
To take the initiative forward, Mr. Hegde announced that, CFSAI will conduct a workshop on IMDG code & Safe Handling of Hazardous Goods and would also invite various stakeholders from the trade, including members of CSLA, BCHAA, AMTOI & others.
As JNPT is India’s largest port in terms of Export-Import trade, CFSAI and its members also contribute in a way to its efficiency and making it a strategic hub for cargo movement. But the port also faces perennial challenges of congestion at its terminals and the deteriorating road conditions around the port severely affects business operations, causing delay in all aspects of business. This is not only hampering the trade but also impacts the overall economy of the Country, in terms of efficiency, productivity and loss of capital. To discuss the challenges and ways to address the same, CFSAI also invited Mr. Amit Malik, Chief Commercial Officer of GTI Terminals to the meeting, to interact with members. Mr. Malik made a brief presentation and apprised the members about GTIs efforts so far and the planed initiatives to ease congestion, such as RFID enabled tags to factory stuffed containers, managing factory stuffed boxes in parking area etc.
Furthermore Mr. Hegde also mentioned that from July 2016, IMO shall be making compulsory for all shippers to declare the net weight of cargo and gross weight of container to be mentioned on the shipping documents compulsory and advised the members to be prepared for the CFS part of volume to be addressed in the system.
As an association CFSAI works relentlessly towards representing and addressing various challenges faced by Export-Import trade. It is also working with Government bodies for achieving the Prime Minister's vision of paperless transactions and raising our industry and economy’s profile especially in terms of ‘ease of doing business’.
