Cargo plans secured for north India
18 / 01 / 2011
INDIA’s northern tip is to be home to a new international cargo airport and a permanent cargo centre.
The Airports Authority of India has conducted a site survey and identified 3,000 acres of land for the airport at Bhaini Maharajpur and Bhaini Bhairon villages in Haryana territory near Delhi.
“The application has been filed with the union ministry of civil aviation for formal approval of the project,” Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda says.
Approximately 300 miles to the north in Amritsar the planned Rs 19 crore (US$418,000) permanent perishable cargo centre would be equipped to handle 200 tonnes of cargo per day.
Blueprints for the new centre come at a time when perishable cargo export from the local Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport has been suffering.
Following four years of operations the airport did not export a single kilogram of cargo in December 2010. The airport took further blows with the withdrawal of an Air India cargo flight and loss of business to Delhi airport.