292… 293… 294… 290… 291… 295…

A list of numbers flashes up above the entrance to the DP World container terminal on Simblist Rd, Port Botany, signalling to the truck drivers parked along the edge of the road when they can enter the terminal to pick up or drop off a container.

292… 293… 294… 290… 291… 295…

Each of these numbers refers to a ‘vehicle booking slot’, an agreed period within which a truck must enter the port and be serviced by the stevedore. Booked online days in advance, each of these slots refers to both an entry window into the terminal and a container to be picked up for import or dropped off for export. As the truck enters the port in compliance with their slot, RFID chips on their chassis trigger a variety of digital interactions – both automated and manual – that are designed to ensure that the right container is loaded onto the right truck in the shortest period of time with the least crane movements necessary.

In their call to “Rethink the Port”, Stack and Olivier argue that transformations in the organisation of container transport and in container terminals, and the increasing role of logistics, mean that it is necessary to reconceptualise the port; instead of a unified, fixed and bounded entity it should instead be considered as a site that is captured in multiple corporate networks, which are typically more global than local in focus. These transformations mean, furthermore, that it may be necessary to shift scales and focus on the terminal rather than the port in order to study the organisation of containerised traffic globally and locally. To approach port operations from the point of view of the terminal means to pay attention to corporate networks, and the multiscalar relations that these engender. Although these networks are typically understood to operate globally, it is also important to consider how the terminalisation of the port has been accompanied by a regionalisation of port operations through the increasing reliance on intermodal terminals. The following maps draw on these arguments to focus on the local and regional logistical geographies that extend from Port Botany. Focusing on each of the corporations currently present at the port, they begin to suggest how the operations of the terminal may be dispersed through multiple sites in the city’s hinterland.

Imagining Empty Land in the Construction of Rajarhat

Katie Hepworth

Nestled in between the vast expanse of an azure sky and the verdant earth at Rajarhat Township, Hiland Woods comes across as a unique effort of modern urban community development. With the best of contemporary residential facilities set against an idyllic landscape, this cluster of dwellings promises a unique living experience for people from all walks of life. … Among the woods that surround this complex, one will certainly find a refuge that is stable, secure and lively. […] We build for you… we build communities.

Hiland Group, Rajharat Township