Tughlakabad ICD (TKD) Customs Clearance — A Practical Guide for Delhi NCR Exporters

Tughlakabad ICD (TKD), operated by CONCOR (Container Corporation of India), is the largest inland container depot in North India and the de-facto customs gateway for Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and the broader NCR industrial belt. Located in south Delhi off Mathura Road, it handles roughly 600,000 TEUs a year — most of it export traffic from NCR factories destined for either JNPT (Nhava Sheva) or Mundra for vessel loading.

This guide walks through how customs clearance actually works at TKD, the document workflow, scheme claim points, and the specific operational quirks that catch first-time NCR exporters.

What TKD does — and what it doesn't

TKD is an inland customs station, not a sea port. Cargo is stuffed into containers at TKD, customs cleared there, then rail-hauled by CONCOR to a sea port (JNPT or Mundra) for vessel loading. Imports work in reverse: container discharged at sea port, rail-hauled to TKD, destuffed and customs cleared there.

The export flow at TKD:

1. Cargo gate-in at TKD CFS — typically 5–7 days before vessel departure from JNPT
2. Shipping Bill filing on ICEGATE 2.0 against your booked container
3. e-Sanchit document uploads with IRN tracking
4. Examination (if not AEO green-channel) by the appraising officer at TKD
5. Out-of-charge (OOC) issued
6. Container loaded onto CONCOR rail rake for movement to JNPT or Mundra
7. EGM filing by the shipping line at the sea port post-vessel-departure
8. RoDTEP scrip generation in your ICEGATE ledger 2–4 weeks later

The single biggest operational fact about TKD is the rail transit window. CONCOR runs daily rail rakes from TKD to JNPT (typically 28–36 hours transit) and three-times-a-week rakes to Mundra (typically 24–30 hours). You need to plan the Shipping Bill OOC to align with a rail rake departure, or the container sits at TKD CFS racking up storage.

Why use TKD instead of moving cargo by road to JNPT directly

Three reasons NCR exporters route through TKD rather than truck their cargo all the way to JNPT:

1. Cost — rail haulage TKD-to-JNPT is roughly 40–50% cheaper per CBM than road haulage Delhi-to-JNPT (1,400 km, two days, single truck per FCL)
2. Time — rail is more predictable than road for the long-haul portion (no monsoon delays, no truck driver constraints)
3. Customs locality — you clear customs at TKD where you have ground presence, rather than at JNPT where you'd need to set up CHA / customs broker relationships

The flipside: TKD adds 3–5 days to the end-to-end timeline (gate-in at TKD → rail to JNPT → vessel loading) vs direct trucking. For time-critical cargo, road-to-JNPT is sometimes worth the extra freight cost.

Document checklist for a TKD Shipping Bill

Minimum docs for any export SB at TKD:

• IEC certificate (Importer-Exporter Code from DGFT)
• AD code letter registered at TKD customs (separate from any JNPT registration you have)
• Commercial invoice with HS code, quantity, unit price, total value, Incoterm
• Packing list
• VGM (Verified Gross Mass) declaration for the stuffed container
• Container booking confirmation from the shipping line
• ARE-1 (where applicable, for goods under bond)
• RCMC / Export Promotion Council membership for scheme claims

Scheme- and product-specific add-ons:

• RoDTEP rate confirmation — checked against your HS code at SB filing
• RoSCTL claim for textile exports (8-digit HS, with sub-category)
• FTA preferential origin certificate if claiming destination FTA reduction
• EPCG / Advance Authorisation copy for duty-free input claims
• CITES / DGFT licence for restricted-list goods
• GJEPC / Kimberley for gem exports
• Pharmexcil / CDSCO for pharma exports

RoDTEP claim mechanics at TKD

RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products) is the scheme that replaced MEIS in 2021. Rate per HS code ranges from 0.3% (gold jewellery) to 4.3% (knitted apparel) of FOB value. Higher than that with RoSCTL stacking on textiles.

The claim mechanics at TKD:

1. At SB filing, the RoDTEP rate is flagged automatically based on your HS code
2. After vessel departure, the shipping line files the EGM at the sea port (JNPT/Mundra)
3. 2–4 weeks post-EGM, the RoDTEP scrip is generated in your ICEGATE ledger
4. The scrip is freely transferable — you can use it against your own future import duty or sell it in the open scrip market (current rate ~85–95% of face value)

Common mistakes:

• Wrong 8-digit HS code at SB filing → wrong rate applied
• Missing the rate flag entirely → no scrip generated, manual claim through DGFT (painful)
• Trying to claim RoDTEP on services exports → not applicable, services use a different (now-discontinued SEIS) scheme

EPCG redemption — TKD's part

EPCG (Export Promotion Capital Goods) gives 0% BCD on imported capital goods against an export obligation = 6x duty saved over 6 years. For NCR-based manufacturers — auto component, textile, engineering, pharma — EPCG is the highest-value DGFT scheme available.

TKD's role in EPCG:

1. Capital goods imported at JNPT/Mundra under EPCG authorisation
2. Export shipments via TKD debit against the export obligation
3. At each SB filing, the EPCG authorisation number is quoted and the FOB value debited
4. EODC (Export Obligation Discharge Certificate) filed with DGFT regional office after obligation met (typically 6 years)

If your customs broker isn't tracking the EPCG debit ledger at each export shipment, you'll struggle to file EODC cleanly at the end of 6 years. WCL maintains this ledger automatically for EPCG clients.

TKD-specific operational quirks

A few things that catch first-time TKD users:

1. CONCOR vs private CFS — TKD has CONCOR-operated facilities plus several private CFSs nearby (Faridabad, Patparganj). Container can be stuffed at a private CFS, then moved to TKD for customs clearance. Be clear which CFS your shipping line nominates.

2. Rail rake schedule matters — if your SB OOC is on a Friday evening, the next JNPT-bound rake may not depart until Monday. Plan SB filing to align with rake schedules.

3. AD code at TKD ≠ AD code at JNPT/Mundra — even though your container is going to JNPT, your AD code needs to be separately registered at TKD customs. First-time exporters often miss this.

4. Examination yard capacity — TKD's examination yard handles fewer containers per day than JNPT. For AEO-aligned green-channel cargo this doesn't matter; for examination cases there's sometimes a half-day queue.

5. Free time — TKD CFSs typically give 5 working days free, then storage charges (~₹250–400 per TEU per day). For LCL consolidation cargo, factor in this window.

6. Patparganj is an alternative — for Delhi-NCR exporters not happy with TKD, Patparganj ICD (operated separately) offers an alternative gateway, especially for textile and handicraft exports.

How WCL operates at TKD

Our Delhi office (Andrews Ganj Market) handles TKD operations. We're CHA-licensed at TKD, registered on ICEGATE 2.0, and run weekly rake-aligned export schedules for NCR clients. The DGFT desk handles RoDTEP / EPCG / Advance Authorisation claims as part of the SB filing workflow.

For NCR exporters: share commodity, HS code, destination, and target ETD — we'll come back with a binding quote that includes TKD customs clearance + CONCOR rail haulage to JNPT/Mundra + sea freight to destination, all in one rate.