Business Standard: Shipping Ministry Establishes Maritime Logistics Portal to Facilitate Sea Commerce

(Image Source: Andy Li/ Unsplash)

On Friday, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways released the national logistics portal-marine (NLP-M), a unified system designed to bring together all trade partners and cut down on logistical costs through real-time mapping and provisioning.

According to the ministry, "NLP would be a single window for all trade procedures in the logistics sector distributed across the country covering all forms of transport in the rivers, highways, and airways together with an E-marketplace to give a smooth end-to-end logistic service."

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By unifying all documents, certificates, and formal procedures involved in the EXIM transaction, the platform hopes to reduce the burden of cumbersome regulations. Similarly, in 2021, the Ministry of Commerce unveiled a centralized online system to facilitate the registration of single companies.

There are four pillars upon which the NLP-M rests: the airline, the cargo, the banking and financial sector, and regulatory authorities and Participating Government Agencies (PGAs). Digitalization in commerce, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), may assist remove numerous logistical hurdles.

Ports will no longer utilize the PCS, or port community system, for logistical mapping. Instead, they will use the portal. Portall Infosystems created NLP-M, and Ernst & Young served as a project management consultant during development.

The platform, according to Union Minister for Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, is a step toward fulfilling the objectives outlined in the PM Gati-Shakti National Master Plan, which intends to streamline logistics and prevent work redundancy.

Source: Shipping Ministry launches marine logistics portal to smoothen sea trade

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