(a) whether the Govenment have decided to tone up the cargo handling facilities at various airports in the country in view of WTO agreement to remove restrictions on exports/imports;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the total expenditure incurred by the Government to renovate the cargo units at various airports during the last one year; and
(d) the extent to which the capacity of such cargo units has been increased to handle exports/imports?
THE MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION (SHRI SHARAD YADAV)
(a), (b), (c) & (d) :- A Statement is laid on the Table of
the Sabha.
STATEMENT IN REPLY TO PARTS (a), (b), (c) & (d) OF LOK SAHBA STARRED
QUESTION NO.402 FOR 16TH APRIL, 2001 REGARDING CARGO HANDLING
FACILITIES AT AIRPORTS.
(a), (b), (c) & (d):- Improvement and modernisation of cargo handling
facilities at various airports is a continuous process keeping in
view the demand for such facilities and availability of resources.
Airports Authority of India(AAI) has created Integrated Cargo
Terminal facilities for quick processing of export and import cargo
under a single roof at the four metro airports at Kolkata, Mumbai,
Chennai and Delhi. These arrangements, which include
Computerisation, cold storage facilities, cargo apron for freighters,
etc., have significantly upgraded and streamlined the cargo handling
at these airports.
AAI has also created modest cargo terminal facilities at
Nagpur, Guwahati and Lucknow airports. Further, international cargo
handling facilites at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur,
Varanasi, Pune, Calicut, and Trivandrum are provided through the
cargo terminals owned and operated by the concerned State Government
undertakings.
AAI has incurred an expenditure of Rs.14.11 crores for
upgradation of cargo terminal facilities at the airports during the
financial year 2000-01.
The upgradation of the facilities and concurrent systemic
improvements in the terminal processing have augmented the handling
capacity by approximately 50% at the Cargo Terminals of the four
metro airports.