NEW DELHI: India is all set to throw open the flood gates to the historic Europe-India link, an integral part of the famous silk route of millennia past. According to the Central Board of Excise and Customs, the International North-South Transport Corridor will be operationalised with the first consignment to Russia being flagged off from Mumbai in mid-January, 2018.
“India is expected to formally accede to the TIR convention in mid-December,” said Sandeep Kumar, Commissioner (Customs & EP), CBEC, adding that this will enable seamless transport of goods between member countries -- including doing away with declaration of goods at international borders during transit and bank guarantees. FICCI has been appointed by the CBEC as the National Guaranteeing Association for TIR operations.
The TIR system -- governed by the United Nations TIR Convention -- is the most broadly used international customs transit system. Currently there are 71 contracting parties including India.
“A lot of the Central Asian countries like Iran, Azerbaijan etc are parties to the convention. This will open up huge trade potential for us in this region and significantly reduce transport costs and time to ship goods to Europe,” Kumar said. The first shipment will leave for Russia from Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port, land in Bandar Abbas, Iran, and move overland and through barge to Russia.
Dry runs conducted by the Federation of Freight Forwarders' Associations in India (FFFAI) has shown that transport cost and transit time were halved through this route. The challenges, however, were customs red tape and process. “Becoming part of the TIR system will remove many of those hurdles,” Kumar said.