Dahej Port (INDAH1) — a bulk and liquid gate, not a container one

Scapex books, clears and follows through at Dahej ourselves, so accountability for your shipment does not change hands at the gate.

Gateway details

What we handle at Dahej

• Booking and equipment release against a named vessel or flight
• Inland haulage from the factory, by road or rail
• Customs filing, examination coordination and follow-through
• VGM declaration supported by a weighbridge certificate
• Bill of lading drafting, checking and release

The short answer, before anything else

Dahej is a bulk, liquid and LNG port. It is not a container gateway. If you have arrived here looking to move a container through Dahej, the useful thing we can tell you is that you should be pricing Hazira, which is close by and does handle containers, or Mundra or Nhava Sheva for wider carrier coverage.

We would rather say that plainly than take a booking enquiry we cannot serve well. Container handling at Dahej has been discussed for years; unless and until a container terminal is actually operating and notified, planning a box movement through this gate is planning around something that is not there. If that changes, confirm it with the port and with customs rather than with a website.

The code

Dahej’s customs station code is INDAH1. It is a real, notified customs station — which is exactly why it appears in dropdown lists alongside container ports and why people assume it works the same way. It does not.

What Dahej actually is

Dahej sits in Bharuch district on the Gulf of Khambhat, serving one of India’s densest chemical and petrochemical industrial belts. It is not a single operator’s port but a cluster of facilities and captive jetties: an LNG import terminal, solid and dry bulk handling, liquid chemical handling with dedicated tankage, and jetties serving individual industrial users. Imports through it run to coal, chemicals, LNG and rock phosphate; exports to petroleum products and chemicals. It has a broad-gauge rail siding connecting towards Bharuch, roughly 45 kilometres away.

Terminal ownership, capacity and cargo mix at Dahej change more than at a single-operator port, because several unrelated businesses run facilities there. Treat any figure you read about Dahej — including the ones summarised above — as a snapshot to confirm rather than a standing fact.

When Dahej is the right gate

It is the right gate when the cargo is bulk or liquid and the plant is in the Bharuch, Dahej, Ankleshwar or Vagra belt. For those movements the proximity is decisive and the specialised handling is the whole point: dedicated tankage and a berth with the right connection are not things a container port can improvise.

Bulk and liquid movements are a different discipline from container forwarding. They turn on berth availability, shore tank capacity, pumping rates, surveyor attendance, laytime and demurrage on the vessel rather than on the box. If that is what you are moving, tell us the commodity, the volume, the loading or discharge rate you need and the window, and we will tell you honestly whether it is a movement we should be handling or one better placed with a specialist bulk broker.

Where your container should go instead

• Hazira — nearest container option for the south Gujarat and Bharuch–Ankleshwar belt, with a short inland leg.
• Mundra — widest carrier and service coverage in Gujarat; usually the first thing we price for an FCL export.
• Nhava Sheva — where a thin trade has no direct call from Gujarat at all.
• Pipavav — for Saurashtra shippers, where the shorter inland leg can beat a better ocean rate.

If you are not sure which of those fits, the gateway list sets out what each one is good for, and our ocean freight desk will price more than one rather than defaulting to the nearest.

Where to check the official position

• ICEGATE — the current notified location codes and what may be filed at each.
• CBIC — notifications covering customs stations and the cargo permitted at them.
• DGFT — IEC status and the export policy on your HS code.

Nothing here is a quotation, and the cargo mix at Dahej is the kind of thing that changes — confirm before you plan.

Tracking a shipment through Dahej

Once a bill of lading or air waybill is issued, follow it on our tracking page. It reads the reference, works out which carrier issued it, and takes you to their own live milestones.