Air cargo piles up due to administrative problems

Chennai: If clumsy software derailed Chennai air cargo operations last time, administrative chaos has brought the complete operations to a standstill now. Consignments of over 600 metric tonnes have piled up in the airport, waiting to reach clearance.
Customs house agents and clearing clerks at Chennai airport say that mismanagement by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and lack of manpower with the AAI-assigned private agency Bhadra International have led to a business loss of several crores. PS Krishnan, president of Chennai Customs House Agents Association, said that consignments that arrived in 12 flights since Monday at Chennai are yet to be cleared.
The reason for the backlog is administrative confusion and outsourcing of cargo handling operations, observers said. They said that the problem has been simmering for a while. Customs clearing clerks who would also help in cargo handling had been forced to work late into the nights owing to problems faced by the cargo handling agency in moving the consignments for clearing. Angered by what was happening, the clearing clerks decided to withdraw their services inside the complex from Wednesday. They had given notice ten days back that they would do so.
While this may have contributed to the problem, works have been delayed from Monday, said D Sridhar, a clearing clerk at Chennai airport. "Due to shortage of manpower at Bhadra International, which is currently handling the cargo at airport, only 200-250 shipping bills were cleared on Wednesday, when a minimum of 1,200 had to be cleared," said Krishnan.
29/04/11 Arun Janardhanan/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Apr 2011, Cargo Apr 2011