Although there are about 200 air-strips across airports in India, only six to seven airstrips among them are suitable for wide-bodied aircrafts. Goa’s upcoming Mopa international airport will be one of the few airports in the country to have air- strips wide enough for air freighters to land.
A CII-Goa conference on logistics was held in the state on September 14, where officials of GMR Goa Air Cargo, Mopa, spoke on the upcoming Mopa airport’s cargo handling facilities. Business head, GMR Goa Air Cargo Thakur Purshottam Singh, said that, Goa will be among the few states in India to have integrated air cargo handling facilities.
The airport is expected to be one of the 15 hubs along the Trans-Atlantic, Mediterranean, Trans-Pacific flight paths. It is set to redefine the logistics industry in the state as it will have a fully integrated logistics section to handle perishable goods as also general goods and heavy industrial cargo.
The new Mopa airport will cater to Goan exporting industries as well as cater to industrial hubs across the border in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Pharmaceuticals, agri-produce and sea food are the top three products targeted by the airport.
Facilities in the proposed integrated air cargo terminal at Mopa includes temperature controlled air cargo containers, cool trolley to transport temperature sensitive cargo terminal to the aircraft, unbroken cold-chain facilities, international certifications required for exports to all countries, transshipment facilities, among others.
“The proposed cargo terminal will be modular and expandable. It is going to be product-specific for all types of cargo including perishables. It will offer seamless exports to any part of the country and internationally, said Singh.
He added that, the design of the proposed cargo terminal is as per latest approved layout and the terminal will also have one-stop solution for all clearances.
Officials of GMR Cargo were key speakers at the CII-Goa conference. Earlier during the conference Saurabh Kumar, chief executive officer, GMR Cargo, spoke on recent changes taking place in the logistics industry.
“In the last two-three years the customer has become very impatient and meticulous. Few years back customers never used to ask to show the shipment. Now they want the visibility of the shipment all through the stages,” said Kumar.
He added that, merging of ocean and air cargo happening is an important phenomena taking place in the cargo industry. “Globally ocean and air cargo are coming very close to each other. Basically the same companies are in same business of air and ocean cargo. The reason for the trend is to reduce the time, give more visibility to the shipment and also to reduce the cost.”
Kumar added that, the future of the logistics industry is multi-modal facilities. “Achieving multi-modal is difficult in a land-locked area. Goa is ideal position to be a multi-modal logistics hub because it has ship- railway and airport nearby. Goa’s biggest advantage is in terms of road connectivity and very good port,” added Kumar. He foresees the development of the logistics industry in the state to result in increase in demand for services such as warehousing, freight forwarders, etc.
