Cargo handling facility disapproved at Visakhapatnam Airport

Though Andhra Pradesh stands at the top in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ beating all the other states in the country, the facility of cargo flights is still not approved at the Visakhapatnam Airport which is the largest airport in the state.

The airport handles 60% air traffic of that in AP and lack of cargo facility has become a problem for the exporters and the importers.

Reasons for cargo facility disapproval

• Unavailability of aircraft with wide-bodies.
• No high volume storage area.
• The absence of temperature control rooms for bulk cargo.
• lack of equipment to handle heavy cargo.

Vice Presidents of APATA Dr. K Kumar Raja, DS Varma, and O Naresh Kumar informed Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, “A lot of pharma companies have been manufacturing base here and many other exporters are routing their cargo from Visakhapatnam by road to Hyderabad and Chennai airports. We have done a preliminary study with the help of local air cargo handling agents and airport director of AAI.”

“We were shocked to know that 60 tonnes of international cargo is going from Visakhapatnam airport whereas 2,000 tonnes per month of cargo is being sent by road to Hyderabad and Chennai airports for exports,” the trio mentioned.