India plans expansion of cargo facilities at major airports

AIRPORTS in India handled 1,270,710 tons of international cargo in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is forecasting collective growth at its international and domestic cargo airports of between 10 and 15 per cent in the years until fiscal 2015, taking the 2009-10 results as a base point for comparison.

The authority plans to develop integrated cargo terminals at Port Blair Airport, Srinagar Airport, Surat Airport, Pune Airport, Patna Airport and other small airports, reports India's Economic Times.

The government is implementing various steps to bolster cargo activities, including a plan to expand the New Integrated Cargo terminal (NICT) that became operational in 2008, to cover an area measuring 21,906 square metres with annual capacity of 1.25 lakh tonnes.

Phase III/IV of the New Integrated Cargo terminal in Chennai that is equipped with Elevated transfer Vehicle (ETV) in the export wing and the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS & RS) in the Import wing for automated cargo handling operations and usage of space vertically will be expanded.

According to a statement from India's Government Press Information Bureau the following actions have been planned: handling of export cargo by conveyor belts; installation of a scissor lift at the Truck Dock area for handling loose cargo and shipper loaded Unit Load Devices (ULD) for bonded truck operations; and the upgrade of the old NT hub (Net Transaction) for web-based EDI (Electronic data Interexchange) transaction.

At Kolkata Airport, phase one of new integrated cargo terminal is now fully operational with elevated transfer vehicles and automated storage and retrieval systems. Chennai Airport has also prepared its new Integrated Cargo Terminal, which raises its annual cargo handling capacity from 3.5 million tonnes to 5.15 million tonnes. It is estimated that the existing capacity of both airports will be sufficient to meet demand until 2020.

At IGI Airport in Delhi, Dial has entered into a joint venture with Celebi for modernisation of existing integrated brown field cargo and also awarded a concession to Cargo Service Centre for development of a green field cargo operation.

As for Bengaluru International Airport in Devenahalli, where a cargo village has been established for 200 agents and freight forwarders, the vertical storage space will be increased to cater to growing cargo volumes; a mezzanine floor will be added to one of the cargo terminals in future; and cargo transactions will be streamlined through e-trade initiatives and in-house software.
(Source:www.schednet.com)