Hyderabad Airport handles 56 tonnes Russian made Sputnik V vaccines

June 1, 2021: GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) today handled a 56-tonne import shipment of Russian made Sputnik V vaccines that arrived on a specially chartered freighter RU-9450 of AirBridgeCargo and touched down at Hyderabad Airport at 03.43 hours.

“Today’s shipment of vaccines is the single largest import shipment of Covid-19 vaccines handled in India till date. It completed all processes and was dispatched in less than 90 minutes,” reads the release.

The Sputnik V vaccine requires specialised handling and storage, requiring to be kept at a temperature of -20 degree Celcius.

Major pharma companies based in and around Hyderabad are expected to produce or import over 3.5 billion doses of different varieties of Covid-19 vaccines over the next couple of years and GHAC has been gearing up to handle the surge in vaccine shipments.

GHAC has expanded the capacity of ‘Pharma Zone’, which is India’s first dedicated pharma cargo export terminal and introduced a unique temperature-controlled ‘Cool Dolly’ to safely transport shipments from the terminal to the aircraft.

GHAC has also convened a special task force comprising of customs authorities, airlines, freight forwarders and other stakeholders to ensure priority handling and speedy clearances for vaccines and other Covid relief materials such as medicines, oxygen concentrators etc.

GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) is a WHO-GSDP (World Health Organisation- Good Storage and Distribution Practices) certified major gateway location in India. It is positioned to handle temperature-sensitive Cargo and ensure seamless distribution across the world.

“GHAC is expanding its facilities and streamlining processes both on landside and airside to meet the unique requirements for perishables, agri products and various temp-controlled pharmaceuticals,” the statement says.

It has already launched a large, custom-built Cool Dolly, a mobile refrigerated unit for airside transportation till aircraft maintaining the cold chain, which is scalable. The major export and import commodities handled here consist of perishables (agro & marine products), pharmaceuticals, engineering & aerospace, garments and electronics among others.

The Sputnik V vaccine requires specialised handling and storage, requiring to be kept at a temperature of -20° C.