Plan body dampener for air hub

Nagpur: After ten years of efforts by local politicians and a huge emotional investment by the development-starved people of Vidarbha, the Multimodal International Hub Airport Nagpur (MIHAN), the ambitious project already taking shape here, is in for a shocker — two recent reports by two separate expert bodies to be submitted to the Centre say New Delhi, not Nagpur, is best suited to host the international air cargo hub.
One of the reports is by a special committee of the Planning Commission to be submitted to the Centre while the other is by Ernst & Young for Airports Authority of India (AAI). Sources in the plan body said the committee headed by Anwarhul Hoda, a member of the now-dissolved body, has said in a report on “Integrated Logistics” that New Delhi would be better suited for locating the international air cargo hub than Nagpur. Nagpur, it says, can at best be a site for a national cargo hub. The report is due to be submitted to the government once the new Planning Commission gets constituted.
The reasons cited, sources said, are that about 70 per cent of the cargo flies in in the country in the belly of passenger aircraft. “So, the expert committee believes the place which hosts maximum passenger flights is best suited for having an international air cargo hub,” sources said.
02/06/09 Vivek Deshpande/Indian Express

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Categories: Airports Jun 2009, Cargo Jun 2009, New Jun 2009