Airport’s temporary cargo centre lies closed

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 27

The temporary perishable cargo centre of Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport has been lying closed for the past three years after the withdrawal of London-Almaty-Amritsar flight by British Midland International (BMI) Airlines in October 2012.

The air transportation offered convenient way to deliver baby corns, snow peas, sugar snap, okra and other vegetables from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to Europe.

Its non-operation of the cargo centre has also diminished a good source of revenue for the airport, which is incurring huge losses.

The main objective of providing Punjabi farmers, who are facing stagnation in traditional crops, an alternate source of income and divert them from vicious wheat-paddy circle remains unachieved. The temporary perishable cargo centre was established in July 2006. Meanwhile, the process to convert temporary perishable cargo into a permanent cargo centre at Amritsar airport has been stalled.

Built with an investment of Rs two crore and spread over an area of 6,500 sqm, the temporary cargo has the capacity of handling 80 tonnes of fresh produce every day. It is equipped with cold storage to maintain temperatures from two to 10°celsius in its six chambers, including four for storage. It has got two X-ray machines.

However, this entire infrastructure is lying under utilized for want of direct flight to London, which is the main international vegetable market in Europe.

Vegetables exporters have shifted to Delhi to export perishable farm fresh produce. By doing so, they have lost the advantage of transporting fresh vegetables to Europe by shorter, faster, cheaper and easier route. Over 1 lakh kg fresh vegetables were exported in 2006-07. The next year saw the volume go up to 2.78 lakh kg. The quantity of vegetable export continued to grow. In 2008-09, vegetable export reached 6.23 lakh kg. The following year saw vegetable exports go up to 9.08 lakh kg. Around 202 tonnes vegetable was exported in between October 2011 to March 2012.

The journey of perishable cargo has never been smooth. Initially, Jet Airways used to operate the flight, but once the private airline pulled out due to recession, Air India filled the breach. Biggest blow to export through temporary cargo was dealt after Air India discontinued its direct Amritsar-London-Toronto flight in October, 2010.

The national carrier had replaced the Amritsar-London-Toronto flight, utilizing Boeing 777 aircraft, with a hub-and-spoke model on Amritsar-Delhi circuit and that too in a smaller A-321 aircraft, unable to handle much cargo quantity.