Logistics Data Bank Project

Why is in news? Logistics Data Bank Project Meeting held to review measures taken by Port Authorities to improve port performance

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) held a Logistics Data Bank Project (LDB) Meeting to review the measures taken by Port Authorities to improve port performance.

The meeting highlighted the significance of adopting a holistic approach to improving productivity of ports in order to achieve the USD 2.5 trillion EXIM target by 2030.

Development of infrastructure on PM GatiShakti principles for adequate last and first mile connectivity, improvement of logistics services and enhancing port capacities to handle requisite trade volumes, etc. to be focus areas for port-level strategic planning and future development.

About the project:

LDB was conceived as one of the smart community projects between India and Japan during the initial stages of planning of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor project.

The logistics Data Bank Service would bring efficiency in the current Logistics & Supply Chain through use of information technology that would be helpful for tracking and viewing the movement of containers across the port to the ICD and end users.

LDB handles 100% per cent of India’s EXIM container volume.

It uses RFID technology through Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and Cloud-based solution to provide real-time tracking of EXIM container movement in India.

Every container is attached to a Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) tag and then tracked through RFID readers — aids importers and exporters in tracking their goods in transit.

This has, in turn, cut the overall lead time of container movement as well as reduced transaction costs that consignees and shippers incur.

It is billed as a major ‘ease of doing business’ initiative aimed at boosting India’s foreign trade and ensuring greater transparency.

The project covers the entire movement (of containers) through rail or road till the Inland Container Depot and Container Freight Station.

LDB Project has been leveraged to develop Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP).

The ULIP has been conceptualized with the vision of “PM GatiShakti” which aims at breaking individual silos, promote integration among various Ministries/Departments and create a single window thus bringing efficiency and transparency in the logistics industry and thus making India cost competitive and ‘Atmanirbhar’ in the logistics sector.

ULIP has been integrated with 27 systems of seven different ministries through 102 APIs, covering more than 1600 fields successfully.

The LDB system has contributed in improving India’s rank in the benchmarking tool of the World Bank i.e. Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities in trade logistics.

LDB has led to improve the key components of logistics which include customs performance, infrastructure quality, logistics service quality, consignments tracking and tracing, timeliness of shipments and Trading Across Border (TAB) which is primarily the relevant parameter for cross-border trade.

Currently, LDB Pan India coverage integrates17 Ports (comprising 27 port terminals) (Port IT systems), 170 CFSs & ICDs (RFID Infrastructure), 60 Toll Plazas (RFID Infrastructure), 03 ICPs (RFID Infrastructure), 09 SEZs (RFID Infrastructure) and 5800 railway stations (Freight Operations Information System- FOIS).