GMR and Concor, a railway PSU, have partnered to bring the air freight service, a first of its kind initiative, at Inland Container Depot (ICD) JRY, Kanpur on Thursday.
Starting three times a week, bonded trucking service will be used for moving goods between ICD Kanpur and Delhi Airport. All prior custom clearances and claim of duty drawback will now happen at the facility itself.
The transit time between Kanpur and Delhi is expected to be less than 12 hrs.
“Launching of such facility is yet another move to meet the growing demand of the cargo industry emerging out of the tier-II cities. It will not just cut down on the cost and time involved in shipping but will also reduce the multiple handling of the Air Cargo. Airlines will now be accepting the cargo at ICD itself. Thus, ensuring better protection and minimal transit risk of the Cargo items,” said Chief Commercial Officer- Aero, DIAL, Pradeep Panicker.
Commenting on the launch, Director – IM&O, Concor, Yash Vardhan, said, “This is the first time in the history of air cargo in India that the Airport, airline, Inland Container Depots, Customs and customers have joined hands to offer such a unique service at a location.”
The first truck was dispatched carrying leather goods from Suri Shoes Pvt Ltd, Mirza International Limited and Arvind Footwear with a load of 1.6 MT. These goods were linked to Cathay Pacific and Emirates airlines at Delhi Airport.
At present Kanpur exports approx. 500 MT/month of air cargo and imports about 115 MT/month. Opening of AFS is expected to service all this cargo and additionally convert more latent demand.
