In today’s scenario, one of the key success areas for any EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) contractor is compacting the lead time in Erection and Commissioning (E&C) activity and bringing down the construction cost, while at the same time maintaining high quality standards of the job being performed at the project site.
All this can be made possible only when the components/packages to be installed at the site are received in modular form rather than in a considerable dismantled form. Considering the fact that most of the project sites in India are at remote locations and there is dearth of skilled labour at these sites, it is highly imperative that the fabrication and assembly work at the project site is minimised. Therefore, cargo modularisation plays a vital role for any EPC contractor for seamless execution of a project.
However, the factors responsible for limiting cargo modularisation in India are:
a) Insufficient road widths at several locations en route, for haulage of the ODC packages to the project sites.
b) Non-availability of bypasses at several locations and the routing of packages therefore through congested areas.
c) Restricted vertical clearances of RuBs (Rail under Bridges) at several places.
d) Multiple RTO norms applicable during inter-state movement of such ODC packages.
e) Heavy traffic density on National Highways due to their limited network, thereby limiting the movement of such packages.
f) Cost of extensive civil works in hauling such packages, in addition to the considerable delays.
It has, therefore, become necessary that for all mega projects in the core sectors of the economy, which are projects of national importance, the roads to the sites should be given National Highway status to be able to cater to larger ODC modular size packages. Also, the RTO norms should be unified for fast-track clearance of these packages, under single window.
—Tapan Sahu, Logistics Professional
EXIM News
No comments:
Post a Comment