The Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari, on Saturday digitally flagged off a RoRo cum general cargo vessel M.V. IDM DOODLE carrying a consignment of 185 trucks from Chennai Port to Mongla Port in Bangladesh.
Gadkari said that these trucks, which are being exported by Ashok Leyland Ltd, were being sent to Bangladesh through the land route till now, travelling a distance of about 1,500 km. Transport through the sea route will save about 15-20 days of travel time. For this trip alone, that involves transport of 185 trucks, a total of about 3 lakh vehicle km of road travel will be saved, as the land route is longer and much time is lost at the congested Petrapole-Benapole check point on the Indo- Bangladesh border.
Ashok Leyland currently exports around 12,000 truck chassis to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and countries in Africa. The volume to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is likely to increase by 80 per cent in the coming years. Now, more than 500 trucks per month are expected to be exported via the sea route, which will take away a lot of traffic from the roads.
Chennai Port started coastal RoRo voyages in August 2016 when 800 Hyundai cars were shipped on RoRo vessels from Chennai to Pipavav for local distribution.
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