Besides, it has also entered into an alliance with Carlson Wagonlit, a global travel management and hospitality firm.
The tie-up with the UK-based Lep will facilitate its cargo division to offer multimodal transport services.
At present, Airfreight is engaged in freight forwarding operations which entail moving cargo from seaport to seaport or airport to airport. Multimodal transport operators, on the other hand, offer door-to-door services.
A multimodal transport operator is responsible for transporting goods from the exporter's factory - for example, from Jalandhar to the importer's factory in New York.
The travel chain may include a combination of road, rail, sea and air transport.
This tie-up is expected to boost the turnover of the division from Rs 125 crore to Rs 325 crore in the next four years.
Astra Shipping, the newly formed subsidiary of Airfreight is also likely to benefit.
The company also plans to transform Indtravels, its travel division.
With the help of its new partner, Carlson Wagonlit, Airfreight is introducing a new concept called corporate travel management.
The change in focus is expected to rake in Rs 175 crore by the year 2000 from the current Rs 60 crore.
The two tie-ups are in line with Airfreight's strategy to transform itself into a logistics solutions provider and become a Rs 1000-crore company by the turn of the century.
Towards this end, it has already invested Rs 100 crore in information technology, infrastructure and brand building in the last four years.
The company plans to pump in an additional amount of Rs 200 crore in these areas in the next four years.
In keeping with the new change, the company has invested heavily in a nationwide, high-speed (64KB) electronic network to inter-connect all metros and other important cities to provide up-to-date information to customers about their cargo movement.
