Air cargo villages, hubs concept is novel, says trade

Bangalore: Aimed at buttressing country’s manufacturing competitiveness, impacted by bottlenecks in transport infrastructure and logistics, Planning Commission’s Working Group on Logistics, has suggested setting up air cargo villages and development of international air cargo hubs across the country.
Although air traffic growth has surpassed industry expectations, air freight has remained neglected hindering smooth movement of cargo affecting timely and prompt delivery, it said observing that growth in air freight traffic has brought to fore necessity of developing air cargo villages.
The panel suggested development of international air cargo hubs also at international airports to act as centralised transit points. Undertaken on large scale, it could not only boost trade and economy but generate employment opportunities, the group said, adding for air cargo hubs it is critical to earmark customs free zones where payment of duties and taxes are suspended upon arrival of goods.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Air Cargo Agents Association of India Bangalore Region Chairman Prem Kumar, hailing the idea, said cargo villages play vital role providing value-added service to the industry and customers. It will help freight forwarders take shipments directly to their bonded warehouses on arrival and pay required duty & taxes by importers and take delivery.
23/02/11 Subrahmanyan Viswanath/Deccan Herald

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Categories: Cargo Feb 2011, New Feb 2011