KSH Distriparks’ ICD at Talegaon,Pune fully functional

Contemporary Inland Container Depot, set up by KSH Distriparks at Talegaon near

Pune, was operationalised in the first week of November 2008.

The Commissioner of Customs, Pune, Mr R. Sekar, flagged off the inaugural LCL and
FCL export shipments on November 7. The first LCL consignment, of Gudel India, was
Customs cleared by Sharp Logistics, the CHA, with New Globe as the forwarder.

The first FCL consignment handled at the ICD was a 40-footer of Yang Ming Line for
Merloni Termosanitari, Chakan, and cleared by CHA Aashita International.

Other manufacturers like Thermax,Suvarna Fibrotech, Technoedge, Filtek India,

Custom House Agents (CHAs) like Vansa Clearing, container lines including IAL
Container Line and forwarders like Allcargo were the foremost to use the FCL/LCL
services that were rolled out. The ICD Customs team headed by Mr V. V. Sarma,
Deputy Commissioner, is providing proactive support on the statutory front.

Open house

At an Open House held at Talegaon, more than 100 representatives of the foreign
trade including exporters, importers, freight forwarders, CHAs, IATA agents,
marine surveyors and container transporters were present. The Assistant
Commissioner of Customs, Mr A. D. Pethkar; CHAs Mr Ashish Seth, Mr Pradip Kale, Mr
Vinod Sharma, Mr Rajiv Shah, Capt. Ashish Samarth, Mr V. V. Damle; forwarders Mr
Satish Deshchougule, Mr Dilip Gajare and Master Mariners Mr Porus Daruwalla and
Capt. Koshi eminently represented the ex-im trade fraternity from Pune and Mumbai.

There was a lively exchange of views between the participants and the KSH
Distriparks team, along with the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Customs
to promote the ex-im trade.

Mr Kushal Hegde, Chairman of the KSH Group, welcomed the gathering and Mr Rohit
Hegde, Director, explained the rationale behind the ex-im infrastructure
initiative and the road ahead for KSH Distriparks. He spelt out KSH Distriparks’
intent to set up logistics infrastructure at geo-strategic locations for
manufacturers, retailers, transport companies and third party logistics providers
to enable large-scale consolidation/distribution.

In his address, Mr Sekar, discussing the global foreign trade scenario, felt it
was the right time for importers and exporters of Pune and upcountry Maharashtra
to use cost-effective hinterland facilities. Adoption of the global concept of de-
congesting the gateway ports and airports by encouraging hinterland clearances was
the need of the hour, he stressed. He felt that reducing transaction costs was the
only way ahead to make exports competitive and imports cheaper.

The guest of honour, Mr S. Y. Ranade, President of Pune Custom House Agents’

Association, felt that the trade in Pune needed to explore ways of getting
together to use the infrastructure in the city for clearing cargo locally so that
the volume-driven cost advantage accrued to the ex-im trade in Pune and upcountry
Maharashtra.

Mr Nikhil Oswal, General Manager, justified the selection of Talegaon, since it

was a convergence point of freight routes from western and southern Maharashtra
and northern Karnataka. The ICD, on the outskirts of Pune on the ring road
bypassing Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, just a few kilometres
off the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, was en route the
gateway ports of JN Port and Mumbai and the Sahar Air Cargo Complex.
It was ideally located to serve the upcoming auto and engineering industrial
clusters in Ranjangaon-Sanaswadi-Chakan-Talegaon-Urse-Hinjewadi-Mann-Pirangut
belt, anointed the fastest-growing industrial region in the country having
attracted investment of more than $ 3.5 million in a short time.

Mr Nikhil Oswal also elaborated that the Maharashtra government had sanctioned, in
September 2008, Rs 1,219 crore for developing/four-six laning of the 128-km
Vadgaon-Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur-Nhavara-Chaufulla Pune bypass road. The sanction
also envisaged the construction of a 21-km service road, 4 flyovers (Talegaon,
Chakan, Kedgaon, Shikrapur), 16 subways, five bridges, 38 medium-sized bridges and
34 bus-bays to be completed by 2010.This would bring upcountry cargo to the very
doorsteps of the ICD from upcountry destinationsAurangabad,Solapur,Ahmednagar

The Directors of KSH Distriparks, Mr Rajesh Hegde and Major A. R. Patil, along
with General Managers, Mr K. Minocherhomji and Mr Sandeep Pradhan, showed the
foreign trade intermediaries around the ICD and highlighted the capability and
capacity of the facility.

The ICD’s USP

The USP of the new ICD includes 15 m high, 1 lakh sq. ft of warehousing capacity,
capable of heavy-duty high-rise racking, a fully-paved container yard, handling
equipment like top lifter for containers, and a separate truck terminal outside
the Customs area. All of this make it a vantage clearance point for ex-im cargo in
this region.

Global business centre

The international business centre, built in the vicinity of the ICD, already
houses offices of Customs, CHAs, freight forwarders, IATA agents, etc. The fully
air-conditioned and well-equipped 15,000 sq. ft centre will facilitate ex-im trade
by providing in-house offices for global logistics and express cargo players,
shipping lines, airlines, their agents, etc.

The ICD-provided transport and shippers’ own transport options for FCL movements
give clients a wide choice, according to Mr P. P. Sahasrabhojane,General Manager
of KSH Distriparks. Master Marine is providing the marine survey solutions.

The versatile ICD team, comprising professionals drawn from foreign trade and the
ex-im infrastructure industry from the Pune-Mumbai-Mundra Port region, is fully
geared to proactively enhance FCL/LCL/air cargo clearances-transportation, ex-im
bonded warehousing and marine container handling operations.

Further details on KSH Distriparks is available on http://www.kshdistriparks.com/