Minister stresses on need for connectivity with rural areas

Assam Industry and Commerce Minister Chandramohan Patowary today emphasised on the need for connectivity with rural area which is an important factor for cargo and goods to reach it's logical end.

Inaugurating a day-long workshop on Air Cargo Development in North East-End to End Logistic value chain, the minister urged stakeholders to make way for business with eastern and South East Asian countries from Assam.

The workshop was organised by Airports Authority of India with AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company Limited.

AAI Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra said that cold storage facility, which was earlier missing from North East, was being currently provided and farmers, traders and producers can now send local products to other parts of the world.

"With increasing demand, airlines are adding more and more cargo planes in their fleet and the AAI along with AAICLAS is ready to facilitate all concerned stakeholders in development of cargo in the region," he added.

He also announced reduced airport charges under Regional Connectivity scheme if a proposal was received from the state government.

Assam Additional Chief Secretary, Ravi Capoor said that the state has the potential of becoming horticulture hub of the country.

At another programme on the day, the AAI Chairman laid the foundation stone for Common User Domestic Cargo Terminal-II (CUDCT), to be built for operations at the Guwahati Airport.

The salient feature of the cargo complex includes enhancing the Air Cargo capacity of the Airport to 12,000 MT annually and was expected to be completed by 2019.