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SAGT
celebrates fourth anniversary
South
Asia Gateway Terminals (Pvt) Ltd., (SAGT) has completed four
successful years of operations as the first private container terminal
in Sri Lanka. Along with its anniversary, SAGT also celebrates the
completion of the construction of its ultra modern facility at Queen
Elizabeth Quay (QEQ) and the launch of its highly sophisticated
web-site.
With
an annual capacity of over 1,000,000 TEUs this world class facility
has approximately 1km of linear berth with 15m water depth, 6 Super
Post Panamax quay cranes, 3 Post Panamax quay cranes and 28 Rubber
Tyred Gantry cranes. SAGT management needs are covered by the
management contract with P&O Ports.
Since
becoming the first private container terminal in the history of Sri
Lanka, SAGT has notched up many historical achievements in the Port of
Colombo such as increasing the QEQ annual throughput from 200,000 TEUs
to over 500,000 TEUs. Another milestone event was achieved by SAGT
when for the first time in the history of the Port of Colombo a vessel
was worked using three cranes at the old QEQ wharf. With the
completion of the construction and the re-equipment of the QEQ
facility, SAGT is now one of the most modern container terminals in
the region utilising the world's most sophisticated IT infrastructure.
In
line with its strong customer focused attitude, SAGT has further
extended the emphasis on efficiency by launching its web-site e-Port (www.sagt.com.lk).
The web-site is packed with comprehensive information that will surely
meet the most advanced needs of customers. Whilst covering a wealth of
knowledge about the Port of Colombo itself, customers of SAGT have
access to significantly more sophisticated services through the
e-Port. As such, shippers, consignees and shipping lines can track
their respective cargo movements on a real time basis, including
demurrage charges up to a given date.
Extensive
inquiry options, custom report generation facilities, real time vessel
operations and even productivity monitoring are the other features of
the SAGT e-Port. The web-site incorporates some of the best security
features available today to protect against unauthorised access and
maintain data integrity with many more facilities scheduled to be
available in the future. Among them there is SAGT's e-Port capability
to provide a total 'business-To-Business' (B2B) solution framework,
where customers and suppliers get access to services such as
electronic invoicing and payment, credit inquiries and electronic
delivery processing. These options will be enabled in future stages.
SAGT
has leveraged its efficiency and productivity focused mentality in
many aspects of the Port of Colombo practices by among others,
introducing terminal service agreements with performance guarantees.
Further improvements attributable to SAGT have been the use of
computerised Vessel and yard Planning Systems and Terminal Management
Systems, which have allowed the terminal to upgrade the existing
organisational skill and performance levels so as to achieve
international standards in service and productivity.
The
strategic planning of SAGT has further resulted in many first of its
kind innovations for Sri Lanka. One such concept is the introduction
of window berthing programs. Another is a shift to the current
paradigm that is now encompassing a 24x7x365 working culture through
the introduction at SAGT of an employee friendly 12 hour, 2 shifts, 3
working group working system that has also effectively removed the
need for excessive overtime.
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