Pipavav Port (INPAV1) — Saurashtra’s gateway

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

Gateway details

What we handle at Pipavav

• 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 code you file against

Pipavav’s customs station code is INPAV1. That is what goes on a shipping bill or bill of entry, and what an AD code is registered against for this station. As at every Indian gateway, registration is station-specific: an exporter who has only shipped through Mundra has no registration here and will find out on the day of the first booking, not before.

What Pipavav is

Port Pipavav sits in Amreli district on the Saurashtra coast. It is operated by Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited, in which APM Terminals is the majority shareholder, and it began commercial operations in 2002 as India’s first private port. It handles containers, dry bulk, liquid bulk including LPG, and roll-on roll-off cargo. Rail access runs through Pipavav Rail Corporation, a joint venture with Indian Railways formed in 2000, which connects the port into the national network towards Surendranagar and beyond.

Ownership, berth capacity and service patterns change. Treat the above as background rather than as anything to plan a shipment against, and confirm the current position before you commit.

Why Pipavav often beats Mundra on the total number

This is the decision that actually matters, and it is frequently got wrong because people compare ocean rates in isolation.

For a shipper in Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Morbi or the wider Saurashtra belt, the inland leg to Pipavav is materially shorter than the leg to Mundra. On a full container that difference is real money, and on several lanes it is worth more than the gap in the ocean rate. A quote that shows Mundra cheaper per container can still be the more expensive shipment once the trailer is paid for.

It cuts the other way too. Mundra carries far wider carrier and service coverage, so on a thin trade the Pipavav option may involve a transshipment that Mundra would not, and a transshipment costs days and adds a point of failure. The honest rule is that neither port wins by default. We price both and say which one we would use, including when that is not the nearer one. For the Mundra side of the comparison, see our page on Mundra port clearance.

Where the vessel schedule actually lives

People search for a Pipavav vessel schedule constantly, and most of what they find is a stale copy of one. A berthing line-up changes during the day: vessels are delayed at the previous port, windows shift, and a schedule republished on a third-party page is out of date before it finishes loading.

The live position sits with two parties and only those two — the terminal, which publishes its own berthing and line-up information, and the carrier you have booked with, which owns the sailing you actually care about. We do not reproduce either here, because a schedule copied onto a page like this one would be wrong within hours and someone would plan a cut-off against it. If you have a booking with us, the schedule we work to is the carrier’s, and we will tell you when it moves.

To follow a container rather than a vessel, our tracking page reads the container or bill of lading number, identifies the line from the prefix and opens that carrier’s own live milestones.

What we handle here, and how

Scapex files at Pipavav directly. In practice that means booking against a named vessel, arranging the inland leg from the factory, filing the shipping bill or bill of entry against INPAV1, coordinating examination where the risk management system calls for it, and following the file through to the let-export or out-of-charge order. The sequence is the same one set out on our customs clearance page; what changes between gateways is the cut-off pattern and the inland economics, not the customs procedure.

What goes wrong here

• AD code registered only at another station. The filing will not generate until it is done here.
• Comparing ocean rates without the inland leg. The whole reason to use Pipavav from Saurashtra is the road saving; a comparison that leaves it out answers the wrong question.
• Assuming a direct service exists. On thinner trades the routing through Pipavav may involve a transshipment. Ask, rather than assume, before you promise a transit time to a buyer.
• Planning against a copied schedule. Use the terminal’s or the carrier’s own, every time.
• VGM inconsistent with the packing list. Declared weight, weighbridge certificate and bill of lading are cross-checked and have to agree.

Where to check the official position

• ICEGATE — to confirm the location code, register or check an AD code at this station, and track a filed shipping bill or bill of entry.
• CBIC — for the notifications and circulars behind assessment, examination and self-sealing.
• DGFT — for IEC status and the export policy on your HS code.

Rates, cut-offs, free periods and schedules change. Nothing here is a quotation.

Tracking a shipment through Pipavav

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.