Coimbatore airport loses cargo revenue to neighbours

Need for a plant quarantine office is strongly felt

The airport of Coimbatore is losing its cargo revenue to the neighbouring airports of Kochi and Bangalore owing to the absence of a plant quarantine office on its premises. Coimbatore is considered the South Indian industrial hub.

A plant quarantine office prevents the spread of harmful pests and diseases into the state as well as certifies plants and agricultural goods for export out of the state.

The Coimbatore airport caters to the needs of nearby districts of Salem, Erode, Nilgiris and Dharmapuri. A large volume of exports from both industrial sector and farm sector is being carried out from these districts.

Among the industries located in Coimbatore region are textiles, software, machine tools, water pumps, metallurgy, textile machinery, farm equipment, poultry and auto components. Together with the nearby town of Tirupur, Coimbatore boasts of largest textile activity in the world and around 85 per cent of textile machinery in the country is manufactured from this region.

In addition to the industrial sector, the area is also a producer of a large number of crops including paddy, tea, sugarcane, cotton, turmeric, onion, coconut and flowers.

"There is not even a single quarantine certifying officer to give clearance for agri goods in such a highly industrialised and farming activities oriented area. As such, there is no offtake of perishable commodities from this region," an airport source told Business Standard.

Moreover, the limited flights from Coimbatore and the lack of enough cargo space in passenger flights are major handicaps in generating sufficient volume of throughput. Added to this is the hassles involved in handling transshipment of cargo moved out of Coimbatore to other airports, the source added.

Logistics and freight forwarding agencies are also hesitant on uncertainty regarding the hassles in transit situations. Also, the cargo fare structure for the Coimbatore-Chennai sector which works out around Rs 8 a kilo is felt as another disincentive for direct cargo from Coimbatore.

"This prompts the shippers to take their bulk cargo to Kochi, Bangalore or Chennai to beat the high costs involved," the source pointed out.

The cargo complex of AAI at the Coimbatore airport was commissioned with effect from December 1, 2002 with a cold storage facility as a temporary means of storage for perishable commodities.

The average handling of cargo at the Coimbatore airport is around 150"�200 tonnes a month with an average volume of export as 160 tonnes.

Hurdles ahead

There is no quarantine certifying officer to give clearance for agri goods. As a result, there is no offtake of perishable commodities from this region

The limited flights from Coimbatore and lack of enough cargo space in passenger flights are major handicaps in generating sufficient volume of throughput

The hassles involved in handling transshipment of cargo prompt the shippers to take their bulk cargo to Kochi, Bangalore or Chennai