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Due to the LockDown amid COVID-19 all shipping and transport have been affected. Here we have an important update for India.

1. The Government of India has lifted the ban on movement of all kinds of goods, ie essential and non-essential, however, the actual movement of noon essential goods is still not in movement. There are two reasons:
a. The Police forces which are under the control of the state government have not yet implemented the Central Government orders.
b. The truck drivers have migrated back to their home towns due to LockDown. So shipment companies may not have enough drivers and this situation is likely to continue till the official date of lockdown end, which is 15th April as now.
Post this lockdown we can expect the domestic transport slowly normalizing over the next few weeks.

2. As of 1 April, the CFSs and the ports are working with a limited staff, the customs clearance activity also happening, however, a problem of the cargo reaching or evacuation to/from the CFSs/ports is still there.

3. The Government officials have issued a notice to waive detention and ground rent to the Shipping lines and terminals and the majority of them have obliged to do the same up to 7th April 2020.

4. A few ports and terminals have pronounced Force Majeurs, basically to protect themselves from administration interruptions caused because of LockDown. Anyway, their administrations are ordinarily with some ostensible postponements, so we need not stress on that front.

5. While the ports and port-based CFSs are working, the ICDs in the hinterlands have not accepted operations yet, hopefully, they will begin working in the following days.

At BDG India we are functioning well and all the staff is working from home. We hope the above update helps you. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further queries.