The Chennai Port Trust plans to build an air freight station (AFS) near the airport under public-private-partnership mode.
The Port Trust owns 2.13 acre of land about 2 km from the Anna International Airport.
“We intend to develop this land to commercially benefit the port. One of the avenues we intend to explore is the commissioning of an AFS,” said an official of the Port Trust. Incidentally, the country's first AFS, which is a concept based on the idea of providing airlines nodes near the production centres, was commissioned at Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) four years ago.
Faced with congestion at the Chennai air cargo complex, the air cargo user community suggested the AFS to hold imported goods. Currently, there are two AFSs – CWC and Indev.
There is scope for more such facilities at Chennai.
The location is ideal for this facility as cargo volume through the Chennai airport is on the increase, the official said. An aircraft's cargo will be shifted to the AFS and consignees can take delivery of the cargo after statutory clearances and duty including customs documentation and examination; cargo acceptance check (weight / volume); security checks (x-ray screening / physical check) and palletisation.
The AFS will help avoid congestion at the gateway airports.
The advantages are: an integrated chain; customised logistics solution; lower logistics cost dwell time at the airport and lesser damages/claims.
The Port Trust has issued an expression of interest notice to the trade to explore market interest for developing an AFS.
It could also be a dry dock for storage of air cargo and its stuffing/destuffing from air containers to complement the facilities at the air cargo complex.