Eighty five per cent of the 39,000-odd consignments lying at the Mumbai airport have been disposed of at the open auctions under the Operation Instant Cargo launched by Airport Authority of India (AAI).
In Delhi however around 20 per cent of the consignments (of a total of 34,000 packages) - some of which have been lying at the airports since 1985 - have been disposed off.
According to member operations AAI, Robey Lal, around 10 per cent of the packages have been disposed off in Madras and Calcutta (around 6000 packages had accumulated at Calcutta). He added that by December AAI hopes to get rid of all these consignments clearing up space for expediting export and import cargo clearances.
After that it will open auctions for cargo that has piled up after April, 1997.
The revenue from the auctions is being shared between customs and AAI. The effort is aimed at reducing cargo clearance time to 24 hours for exports and 48 hours for imports by March 1999.
Further, the AAI is looking at a proposal to set up a new cargo complex at a total cost of Rs 100 crore.
It is also examining the possibility of setting aside 50-60 acres of land for a cargo agents handling terminal. A similar proposal for Mumbai involving 8 acres of land is also in the pipeline.
In fact in view of this, sources said the proposal to set up a satellite air freight city in Delhi may be reviewed. This proposal was mooted when export cargo took anywhere upto 11-12 days and import cargo upto 30 days for clearance.
Lal added that the known shippers concept is also proposed to be introduced in India so that cargo can be cleared within a matter of 5-6 hours as is the case in the Middle East. Under this for known exporters to start with and importers eventually, the security cooling off period of 24 hours will be done away with. He explained that the idea is to move to a system of high speed clearance like in Sharjah where cargo can be cleared in 4-6 hours.
In a bid to improve cargo facilities in the states, the governments of certain states - Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - have proposed setting up cargo hubs in certain regions like Nagpur, Coimbatore and Calicut. Studies examining the viability of these proposals are on.
December 03 : 85 per cent of the 39,000-odd consignments lying at the Mumbai airport have been disposed off at the open auctions under the Operation Instant Cargo launched by Airport Authority of India (AAI).
