7 minute read
Manoj Si ngh, Senior Vice President and
manoj singh
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a ban was imposed on national and international movement of cargo. Kindly share the challenges that MIAL faced during lockdown and how did you cope up with it? The COVID-19 outbreak created an unprecedented situation that impacted the entire globe. The travel and aviation industry felt the brunt almost immedi ately after the outbreak was announced in January 2020 as this serious threat impacted all the businesses and econo mies worldwide. As governments across the world swung into action and imple mented measures to curb the spread of the virus as best as they could, India suspended all commercial passenger flight operations and imposed a strict lockdown. However, cargo operations remained active, and GVK Mumbai In ternational Airport Limited (MIAL) managed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) relent lessly carried out its cargo handling activities to cater to the greater need of mobilising and supplying essential com modities across India and the world.
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Despite the mandatory lockdown, MIAL continued to transport es sential goods across continents and reportedly handled 3500 tonnes of COVID-19 related cargo with increased cargo handling capacity. Kindly elaborate on the types of cargo transported to and from MIAL
There is a huge scope for both local and foreign companies to enhance their manufacturing setup and increase the production of goods in India that will further boost international exports and domestic consumption, avows Manoj
Singh, Senior Vice Pres ident
and He ad of Car go at Mu mbai
Inter nat ional
Air port Lt d (MIA L). In an exclusive chat with Ritika Arora Bhola, the veteran leader emphasises on how they enabled cargo movement to and from the airport, and the growing need for safety in operations.
and other initiatives taken to increase capacity in the last three months? CSMIA aggressively functioned to connect India and the global supply chain and successfully processed a total of 48,000 tonnes of cargo which included 28,000 tonnes of exports and over 20,000 tonnes of imports. The airport has also transported 3500 tonnes of medical sup plies such as PPE, masks, gloves, and COVID-19 diagnostic kits, which have been airlifted by over 900 flights includ ing scheduled freighters and non-scheduled charters. The essentials were distributed to the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chennai, Hyderabad as well as the remote areas of the country where these are scarce.
Having handled approximately 4464, 16500 and 27391 tonnes in the months of March, April and May respectively, CSMIA registered a month-onmonth growth of 19 per cent and 66 per cent in April and May respectively. This includes the transportation of a total of approximately 16000 tonnes of EXIM pharma, 4000 tonnes of agro exports and 400 tonnes of live animal export be tween March to May.
Kindly elaborate on the cargo flights scheduled from the airport and the incoming and outgoing traffic at the airport (domestic/ international). How was the demand and supply graph for cargo in the last few months. Overall, CSMIA has handled over 2700 cargo ATMs from March 25 to May 31. Furthermore, CSMIA has witnessed ap
proximately 460 ATMs of all-cargo passenger aircrafts, i.e., passenger aircrafts that were modified to use for the trans portation of cargo, which contributed 14 per cent to the overall freight processed during the lockdown. The airport has also registered considerable movement of cargo charters transporting the es sential commodities and COVID supplies. CSMIA also set a record for the highest number of cargo movements witnessed at the airport during these difficult times of the pandemic and lock down conditions. It registered admittance exports of 725 tonnes and received 518 tonnes of import as well as addition ally made import delivery of 486 tonnes approximately, marking the highest number of imports and exports of cargo managed in a single day despite limited resources amongst other challenges.
The Mumbai air cargo has an ear marked space of approximately 4500 sq mt for processing the vast flow of imports and exports.
Now that the operations have resumed, could you throw some light on the efficient plans and strategies you have adopted to ensure smooth cargo operations at the airport and hundred per cent safety of cargo as well as staff. Safety is of the highest priority for GVK MIAL and the organisation has adopted all necessary safety precautions to pro vide the utmost care to its employees as well as its stakeholders. Sensor-based auto-dispensing sanitisers have been installed strategically and social distanc ing floor markers have been placed right from the entrance to the terminal. GVK MIAL is also ensuring frequent sanitisa tion and fumigation of the terminal, storage facilities, offices, and common areas within the premises of CSMIA. Optimis ing the use of physical resources and digital communications, all personnel at the cargo terminal are made aware of the safety measures, and periodic announce ments and daily briefings on personal sanitation, social distancing and other safety measures are being disseminated.
GVK MIAL has ensured mandatory use of face masks, PPE, hand sanitisers and gloves for staff on duty and daily temperature screening of all airport personnel. GVK MIAL also implemented a staggered roster system to ensure sufficient staff strength for op erations while also complying with the social distancing norms as directed by the government.
Further, GVK MIAL has undertaken various healthcare initiatives and alert programmes. These programmes ensure good health and precaution of all its employees, business partners and inter nal and external stakeholders. MIAL has placed display boards of do’s and don’ts at all operational areas, and all instruc tions and guidelines issued by local and central regulatory authorities are circu lated amongst the staff and stakeholders. A temporary isolation area has been created on the city-side near the en trance gate to immediately separate staff or stakeholders showing COVID symp toms, for further medical aid. Thus, GVK MIAL consistently endeavours to create a safe working environment for employees and its stakeholders at the cargo terminal.
How long do you think the impact of coronavirus will last? By when will Mumbai air cargo achieve the same cargo volumes, load factors, etc. as it was in 2018-2019? With the increase in charter queries, opening of domestic airline operations, and the growing demand for pharma, agro exports and e-commerce, we an ticipate that the growth trend witnessed at CSMIA during April to May will continue in the coming months, with the re-start of manufacturing ac tivities globally. We foresee the cargo volumes of FY19 level to restore by the end of FY22. How do you foresee India’s trade relations with foreign nations in the coming months? Does India have the potential to be a manufacturing hub? In the current scenario where the entire world is hit by a devastating crisis, an emerging country like India needs to restart its manufacturing activities on a fast-track mode and further enhance its manufacturing capabilities to transform into a global manufacturing hub. The Government of India aims to transform the current cri sis into an opportunity and make the country one of the world’s largest do mestic manufacturing base that is globally competitive, and driven by various initiatives like Make in India, Startup India and FDI.
Being a large country with a sizeable population, India is a large consumer of smartphones, automobiles, medicines and garments. India is strongly posi tioned in terms of pharma manufacturing, while the rest of the above segments has been gradually picking up over the years. There is a huge scope for both lo cal and foreign companies to enhance their manufacturing setup and increase the production of goods that will further boost international exports and domes tic consumption.
With the rising e-commerce trade expanding its footprint into all the business segments, the low-cost pro duction capabilities of our country due to cost advantage and robust air/ocean connectivity will complement India’s manufacturing potential; distribution with affordability and last-mile supply chain to the country’s remote areas and global destinations.
Any projects in the pipeline? As the primary cargo hub of the country, CSMIA will continue to provide its best towards the movement of essential goods across destinations while ensuring the safety of its personnel. For this purpose, the airport will scale up its resources and optimise its existing infrastructure including the newly commissioned Export Cold Zone for pharma and agro exports, indigenously designed and developed Cooltainer facility for the transport of temperaturesensitive pharma products from termi n a l t o t a r m ac, a nd t h e I mp or t Cold Zone, Export Heavy Terminal, amongst others.
