India aims to become International cargo hub

New Delhi: To facilitate cargo operations, International airports in metros may soon have cargo villages. As a part of this implementation, certain land near the airport would be reserved for housing cargo facilities and service providers at one place for faster movement of goods, reported The Economic Times (ET).

According to the ET?s sources, the proposed Nagpur airport is a move in this direction to make India as an important international cargo hub. The proposal has also been endorsed by the Planning Commission and has finalized a concept note for inclusion in the Eleventh Plan document.

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According to the proposal, government would identify key airports having potential to support large volume of cargo. A separate space near such airports would be earmarked for the cargo village housing a host of logistic players including courier companies, exporters and importers.

These villages would be connected by a separate terminal, ramp and taxiways. The cargo terminals would also be upgraded to have fully computerized online integrated cargo management system with electronic data interchange (EDI) and bar coding capabilities.

The move is to give push to the multimodal cargo transport system in the country. This proposal would also support the upcoming international cargo hub at Nagpur airport.

As per International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates, India's international air cargo business is expected to ramp up by 8.2 percent annually over the next three years.

During the next 10 years, the domestic and the international cargo traffic is expected to grow at 4.5 percent and 12 percent respectively. The growth in the sector would be fuelled by the boom in India retail sector, say analysts.

In the last five to six years, Airport Authority of India (AAI) which owns and operates almost all airports in the country saw its cargo revenue growing at 300 percent. The new aviation policy envisages air cargo volume reaching nine million MT by 2020.

The new concept is also aimed at reducing the dwell time for cargo at all the metro airports, the official said.