India's Biggest Container Port Made the Supplier Prove It First

India's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) has awarded SoftTech Engineers a Rs929.5m ($9.7m) multi-year contract to build an AI and machine-learning digital twin and a 24-hour command and control centre for the whole port.

The scope is large. The system will cover roughly 34 square kilometres, bringing sea side, land side and road traffic into one live picture. It will connect data across the port's five terminal operators, customs and rail, and cover vessel turnaround and just-in-time arrivals, container flows, gate queues and vehicle tracking. SoftTech leads design, AI development, integration, construction of the command centre and long-term operation, using its CIVIT platform, with Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXPERIENCE providing the core virtual-twin environment.

The sentence we care about most is near the bottom: the contract was won through a competitive process that included a live proof of concept. In other words, bidders had to show their system working on the port's own reality before anyone signed.

That is how every AI purchase should work, and very few do. Most maritime AI is still bought from a demonstration on the vendor's data, with the vendor's chosen example, measured by the vendor's chosen number. A live test on your own operation, with a success measure you set in advance, is the single most effective protection a buyer has.

Continuity note. In August the port appointed an adviser to shape this project. A month later it has a contract with a live test behind it. That is the path from advice to purchase done properly.

What it is not: a working system. It is a contract. The command centre, the five-operator data links and the customs and rail integration are all still to be built, and joining five terminal operators' data is where projects like this usually slow down. [Splash247 · Smart Maritime Network, August]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 20 September 2026.

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