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APM Terminals Inland Services is helping set up solar power plants in India, providing tailor-made logistics solutions to overcome various transport challenges.
The company is now offering a new end-to-end solution for major solar projects, which includes receiving cargo at the sea port, facilitating customs inspection and clearance, multimodal transportation to reach sometimes isolated areas and destuffing at the site.
“To date, we have handled more than 15 large projects from most of the leading solar players, covering over 10,500 acres of land,” said Ajit Venkataraman, Managing Director, APM Terminals Inland Services, South Asia. “We realised that the solar sector players needed a trusted logistics partner capable of understanding and addressing business complexities. We then developed tailor-made solutions that relieved the customer from hassle, technicalities and legalities.”
Previously, the destuffing of solar panels was a delicate and tedious process, but special equipment used at APM Terminals means it is now a much easier affair. This gives APM Terminals more control in the supply chain and allows for more reliability and customisation.
India aims to have 100 GW of solar energy capacity by 2022 and has been working towards achieving this goal in recent years. Venkataraman says, “At present, the country imports more than 80% of its solar panels, mostly from China. In order to reduce costs and make deadlines, it is crucial to guarantee that the transportation goes as smoothly as possible, both at sea, and across the hinterland of India, a journey which is not just long, but also difficult and requiring the right expertise.”
APM Terminals Inland Services has made solar deliveries across a number of states such as Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, other regions in Central India and even over the Thar desert. These deliveries have been taken and solar panels handled from the ports of Chennai, Mundra, Vizag and Krishnapatnam.
