INDIA PLANS EXPANSION OF CARGO FACILITIES AT MAJOR AIRPORTS

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to expand cargo facilities at major airports and also developing integrated cargo terminals at the Pune Airport, Surat Airport (Gujarat), Patna Airport (Bihar), Srinagar Airport and Port Blair Airport. Chennai Airport has developed a new cargo terminal to increase its cargo handling capacity to 5.15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 3.5 mtpa. Expansion of cargo handling capacity has been completed at the Kolkata Airport (phase-I), while the Delhi International Airport Ltd is planning to expand cargo handling capacity at the IGI Airport in New Delhi in partnership with Celebi.

AAI is expecting cargo business at the airports to grow by 10-15 percent till 2015 as compared to 2009-2010.