Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) completed its API integration with port community system (PCS 1x) and is now live with all 36 operational messages on API, after successfully deploying AGDORD – Agent Delivery Order message earlier this month.
API Integration of PCS 1x and ports was initiated for nil lag and real-time transfer of messages between the port operating systems and PCS lx.
“Ports & other stakeholders of PCS lx were requested to start integrating with PCS lx through API. This was aimed at enhancing the user experience of stakeholders and custodians to access the details from the messages without any delay”,said the Portall release.
This move started as an initiative of Indian Ports Association (IPA) and other officials who were pondering over introducing API as the mode of transfer to achieve the real-time transfer of data, whereas the earlier message exchange was via EDI, SFTP with short interval retrieval.
As the first major port to take up the initiative, MbPT started API development and testing with PCS 1x. The team began the process on December 15 and the Phase-1 set of 15 messages were deployed on production by January 20, 2020. Phase 2 set of 6 messages were deployed on June 9, 2020. Phase – 3, set of 14 messages, were deployed on June 19, 2020, and the last message – ADGDORD (agent delivery order) was deployed on July 13, 2020, which completes the 36 messages on production.
Many other ports across India are at varying stages with the move to API with PCS lx. MbPT was also the first port in India to move 100% to PCS lx for eDO.
PCS lx and MbPT have also deployed a mechanism that is enabled to resend messages which may be not transmitted (sent/received) due to network error.
Sanjay Bhatia, Chairman at MbPT and also the Chairman at IPA, thanked the teams of IPA, MbPT, and Portall for overcoming such hurdles into achieving the task.
It is noteworthy to mention that apart from ports, CFSs, ICDs and other stakeholders are also moving to API with PCS 1x.
