Project Methodology For Summer

Internship

The project at GIPL was divided into two parts. The first part was concerned with the
study of the ports on the west coast of India and identification of opportunities, if any. The
second part was the study of Octroi and its implication for the upcoming Offshore Container
Terminal in Mumbai.

GIPL was actively seeking newer port/ terminal development opportunity both in India as
well as abroad. An analytical overview of the current sector, global benchmarking with other
major ports was to be done. It was expected that the western coastline of India is scanned for
greenfield/brownfield port development. This included first analysing the port factors, then
the various ports through subsequent meeting with senior level officials from Ministry of
Shipping, State Maritime Boards etc. Also guidance was provided by GIPL & its SPVs.

The initial objective was to gain knowledge about the various port parameters as the ports
would not be understood well without understanding these parameters. These parameters
include the operational parameters as well as the infrastructure parameters. With the help of
guidance provided by the project mentor, the port parameters were easily understood.

Next, the various ports across each state were to be understood. This included guidance
from GIPL as well as teleconferencing with the officials. Teleconferencing was the main part
of this project as it would provide us information from locations which cannot be visited
within a short period of time. A major hindrance in the project was to obtain information
from the various locations along the coastline. The officials did not feel comfortable to reveal
the information over the telephone line due to confidentiality issues. So, various meetings
with the officials at the MMB and MbPT were done. This helped to get certain information
about the current state of ports. Communication was also done through email, and it was
helpful in providing certain information as well. However, in this, the state of Kerala was not
been included as the state government in Kerala is under communist influence which is not
conducive to ports privatisation.
 Ports in India are designed mainly to handle bulk and break-bulk cargo. But with the
global trend shifting towards containerized cargo, a lot of efforts are underway to improve the
throughput at Gammon Infrastructure Private Limited’s (GIPL) existing Indira Container
Terminal (ICT) and also the under-construction Offshore Container Terminal (OCT). Better
port infrastructure and enhanced port connectivity were the parameters which determine the
efficiency with which a port operates. Octroi was one such parameter.

Octroi is one of the factors which can be a hindrance for transport of goods through the
city of Mumbai. It is a tax which the transporters will look to avoid in their course of
transport as it includes cumbersome paperwork and delay in transport of goods as well as
refund of payment, leading to increasing costs. With the existing Indira Container Terminal
(ICT) and also the under-construction Offshore Container Terminal (OCT), Gammon looks to
increase traffic through Mumbai. For this, GIPL needed to find a solution for the octroi
problem. This is because the nearby JNPT does not have this problem and attracts more
traffic as a result.

So first analysis of what is octroi was done. This was followed by the study of the import
process (process where the goods come into the city) and the export process (process where
the goods move out of the city). To understand these processes, various site visits to the
Octroi posts at Mulund, Dahisar and Vashi were undertaken. This also included meeting with
the officials at the octroi posts along the border of the city as well as meeting the officials at
the Mumbai Port.

A major problem in this was the level of details provided by the officials in their way of
keeping secrecy. However, this problem was solved through meetings with more officials
giving an all round perspective of the situation and the process. Then we analysed an Origin-
Destination report which gives us information on traffic to Mumbai and to JNPT.