Deal to award private firm cargo contract at Chennai Airport sparks controversy

INDIA's Airports Authority plans to appoint private agency Bhadra International in charge of air freight operations at Chennai International Airport.

The proposed move, however, has come under attack as Bhadra International is said to be headed by former Airports Authority of India officials.

"Many airport officials are questioning the logic behind the move especially in the context of the recent modernisation of the air cargo hub and the robust cargo handling in the previous months," said a report by the Deccan Chronicle.

An unidentified senior airport official was quoted as saying, "We suspect a huge scam behind this move which is happening when a major modernisation project at Chennai air cargo at a cost of INR145 million (US$3.22 million) is nearing completion," he said. "We have in fact achieved a 15 per cent growth in import and 35 per cent growth in export of cargo consignments in the last 10 months."

The official added that the former executive director of commercial R V Narayanan, who approved a contract for the private agency, is heading Bhadra International as its vice-president after his retirement.

The report noted that Bhadra International has also won contracts to take over airline related operations at six other airports: Tiruchi, Cochin, Calicut, Thiruvananthapuram, Mangalore and Kolkata.

It went on to say that the station manager of Bhadra International said the company had already started operations at the export wing of the cargo section at the Chennai airport and will take over the import operations also soon.

However, E P Harendranath, director of the airport, is said to have told the Deccan Chronicle that AAI will continue to play the custodian's role in air cargo, though airline related operations are being handed over to the private company.

AAI is believed to have signed the agreement with Bhadra International on November 29, after issuing a notice four days earlier requesting all individual airlines at Chennai to execute a ground handling agreement with the firm as soon as possible.

"This letter adds that cargo terminal services shall be handled by Bhadra International as part of the ground handling operations," a source was quoted as saying in the report.

Installation of an Automatic Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) and construction of new cargo infrastructures at Chennai Airport are scheduled to be completed by March 2011.
(Source:www.schednet.com)