MUMBAI : The Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari, invited private sector, including industrialists, farmers, cold storage chain providers, to develop their business in and around the upcoming Dry Port project at Jalna with a huge potential to boost exports from the Marathavada region of Maharashtra.
Speaking after laying the foundation stone of the Dry Port to be built by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) on more than 185 hectares of land at Jalna near the industrial town of Aurangabad, Shri Gadkari said JNPT will provide modern Logistic Services with the excellent infrastructure and cargo handling facility.
Shri Gadkari said the JNPT has already paid about Rs. 84 Crores to the Government of Maharashtra for land and in addition to that Rs.4 crores has been paid to the farmers for acquisition of land for this purpose. Dry Port will cover 163.02 hectares of Government land and 22.09 hectares of land belongs to individual farmers in different villages of Daregaon in Jalna Taluka and Javasgaon in Badnapur Taluka, Jalna district, near Aurangabad. Shri Gadkari said the JNPT’s Dry Port initiative is in line with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision document for industrialization and “Make in India” programme.
He said setting up of Dry Port facilities at Jalna is an important milestone not only in the history of JNPT but also the Port Sector of country. The Shipping Minister said the JN Port is the first Major Port in the country to have the facility of Dry Port of its own.
It is poised to operate as one of the largest major container ports of India, with an upcoming container handling capacity of almost 10 Million TEUs. JNPT envisages the need to establish extended logistic facilities in the hinterland to facilitate and enhance the overall operations at the port. Dry Port facilities at Jalna will be a game changer for industries in Maharashtra, said Shri Anil Diggikar, IAS, Chairman JNPT
A Dry Port is port facility outside a sea-coast port area. It presents tremendous potential towards value addition and ensuring traffic to a designated port. It allows shippers to undertake consolidation and distribution activities as well as complete export/import procedures at inland locations that are at relatively short distances from farms and factories. The concept of Dry Port plays a vital role in the entire transport chain and its location in inland areas can stimulate the development of growth centers away from the coastal areas. This Dry Ports may cater to a number of activities currently being carried out at JNPT, thus having a direct impact on improvement on port performance parameters and leading to increased port efficiency.
The Dry Port will comprise of some Customs Bonded area where from all export and import cargo can be handled. The area will have all Customs facilities and industrialist can complete their custom formalities at their doorstep. They need not go to port area for further documentation and other formalities. In addition to this some area will be earmarked for Warehousing facilities. Some of the warehouses will be Temperature controlled where agricultural products can be handled. All the industries located in and around Jalna and Aurangabad area will get direct benefit of this Dry Port, where from they can route their cargo for Export and Import. Establishment of a dry port at Jalna results in significant reduction of costs incurred by industry players in transportation of goods from Aurangabad to JNPT.
In addition, the nearby areas where lot of agricultural product is being grown can store their product in the temperature controlled warehouses and also dispatch these products to different parts of India by rail from this Dry Port. Due to the Temperature Controlled Warehouse facility, the farmers can send their agro products directly to dry port and transport it to other part of the country by changing the mode of transport from road to rail with a lesser transportation cost without any third party intervention by which the farmers will get direct benefit. The temperature controlled warehousing facility will help the farmers in keeping the perishable agro products in proper condition and the loss can be minimized.
Some area will be earmarked for setting up of tank farm facility for storage of Edible Oil. This will facilitate the setting up of some Edible Oil Refinery in the nearby area.
Such refinery may use the imported crude edible oil for refining purpose and facilitate the consumption in the Marathavada region at a cheaper cost.
