Theoretical Framework for the Freight Movements Through a Multicommodity Port

Port based freight movement planning is a complicated task that could be carried out efficiently to handle the cargo, optimally utilize the infrastructure and plan the future infrastructure requirements. The nature of activities at the port is dynamic with uncertainties ,since the operations are time bound, scholastic and probabilistic. As the huge capital is involved in port infrastructure, the inter-relationship between port activities need to be understood and a system model enveloping the relationship among the variables is much needed for optimal utilization of existing facilities and to predict the future infrastructure requirements. The conventional four step model approach for modeling the person trips would not effectively reflect the commercial scheduling constraint sand requirements of freight trips. This research work attempts to model the port operations, to assess the level of service of roads and gate operations as subsystems to understand the interdependencies between the variables and the impact on the port operations as a whole.