Perishable cargo facility lying unused at Amritsar airport

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 17

Even as Shri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport, Amritsar, boasts of impressive infrastructure, when it comes to perishable cargo facility, it is largely lying unused due to the lack of direct international flights to destinations such as London and Toronto.

Talking to The Tribune, Punjab CII former chairman Gunbir Singh, who is also a member of the Amritsar Airport Advisory Committee, said, “Despite efforts to popularise air cargo services from all quarters, the dearth of good direct connectivity has hampered revenue streams for the airport as well as Punjabis in this belt...

“Fresh vegetables and fruit, industrial products, trade and commercial consignments were being directly hauled by air to various destinations, thus providing opportunities for export to farmers and businessmen alike. However, presently the 80-tonne capacity cold rooms are gathering dust and lying idle. It is imperative that direct air connectivity to London, Toronto and Singapore are reinstated to this important destination.”

Harinderpal Singh Bajwa, an agriculturist who used to export vegetables to the European market from the airport between 2007 and 2010, said he used to export green chilli, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, ladyfinger and coriander to London. “The daily export of vegetables at that time would vary between 1.5 tonne to 4 tonne. However, later, the Jet Airways reduced the frequency of its Amritsar-London flight before finally winding up its operations. Air India too had its flight to London, but there were problems of temperature control in it which affected the exports of fresh vegetables,” he added. The potential of the perishable cargo facility here could be gauged from the fact that the airport had witnessed an export of 9.08 lakh kg of fresh farm produce in 2009-2010. Now, in the absence of any alternative in the region, the exporters have shifted their operations to the Delhi airport despite the fact that exporting merchandise via Delhi airport is not easy.

Meanwhile, Bajwa also felt that exporting vegetables from Punjab to the UK now did not seem viable as the local prices had shot up significantly. Moreover, he said stakeholders in countries like the UK were now importing vegetables from destinations like Africa as they found it cheaper.

The airport has witnessed withdrawal of various international flights in the past. Among the airlines which resorted to the move include the national carrier too. Air India discontinued its Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto flight on October 31, 2010.

Similarly, the British Midland International (BMI) pulled out its Amritsar-Almaty-London flight in October 2012.

Prior to it, Air India had suspended its Amritsar-Toronto flight. Singapore Airlines had launched thrice a week Amritsar-Singapore flight on October 1, 2004. The service ran well for around five years before being discontinued in early 2009. Later, Jet Airways launched its Amritsar-London flight only to withdraw it after some time.