Page 24 - ITLN July - Aug 2023 for Magzter

Interview
Satyaki
Raghunath

certified there, get it customs-cleared Secondly we have got a number of
and put it in a bonded truck there so international airlines who bring their
when it comes here it doesn’t have to go dedicated freighters here, whether they
through all of the checks all over again. I think we do about are Turkish (Cargo), Qatar, Cathay Pacific
It can then go out straight for export. 43% of south India or Emirates and a number of others.
It comes in a bonded, sealed truck, it and about 30% of I think there are 13-14 different
comes to our ATMF, gets cleared, then overall India in terms airlines who come in here from a
it goes to our cargo terminal and it goes freighter perspective and all of them
out for exports. So the whole point is of perishables. We had have driven cargo growth here across
that you can do it there. Once you seal it about somewhere in the Bengaluru and what has been very
and set it up, the LogiConnect route is a region of 40,000 MT of gratifying is that it’s been increasing.
bonded truck that’s coming here. So the perishables last year.
good part is that you don't have to come Along with your partners - what is
here like one used to historically and some of the physical infrastructure
have to go through the whole customs that you are building now?
process here, it's been cleared and so I think we do about 43% of south Currently we have just finished a large
it’s ready for shipping. India and about 30% of overall India round of investment. We have capacity
in terms of perishables. We had about here for about 750,000 tonnes annually.
Your perishable journey is facilitated somewhere in the region of 40,000 Our volumes are in the region of around
by the coolports at the airport. Could tonnes of perishables last year. So I 450,000 tonnes this year. I think we are
you talk about how this is BIAL’s think we are in that range and we are not building anything right now but as
strong point? hopeful that it is an area where we will we look forward we will be building a
So we have got about 60,000 tonnes continue to grow over the next decade. new domestic cargo facility and we have
of annual capacity here across the just awarded a tender for a new logistics
BLR Airport perishable and cold chain Could you talk about the new park which will also commence shortly
facilities. And that’s split as 40,000 custodians who have been taking over and should be ready in the early part of
and 20,000 across two facilities on at the airport and what kind of growth 2024. I think over the course of the next
the AISATS and the Menzies side. they will drive? decade we will invest significantly to
Fundamentally what it does is these From our perspective, partnerships grow the facilities from 750,000 tonnes
are dedicated cold chain facilities which come from airlines, freight forwarders, to 1.2 - 1.4 million tonnes.
are temperature controlled. And in government stakeholders but our
partnership with a couple of other people previous concessions ended in May Is e-commerce a vertical you hope to
who have IoT temperature controlled 2023. Our new concessionaires are WFS grow?
devices like Envirotainer and others for and Menzies, two of the world’s largest I think e-commerce has already grown
instance - you can bring your farm fresh cargo operators, who took over at the significantly. If you look at our ECT
produce or meat, pharmaceuticals etc end of May. These are joint ventures that (Express Cargo Terminal) it was driven
in temperature controlled trucks or BIAL also has a stake in. by the fact that there was a huge amount
facilities to the cold chain facilities. I think, from the perspective of the of growth in e-commerce and a huge
We have 60,000 tonnes of capacity cargo community, it is our intent to grow amount of growth in digital. And you can
here across our terminals and they are cargo volumes to about somewhere also see that from the fact that Amazon
temperature sensitive and you can set between 1.2 to 1.5 million tonnes has Prime Air sitting in India. And
the range to what you want in order to annually by the early 2030s. The idea between south Indian airports they are
maintain the integrity of the cold chain. of getting into these partnerships is to already servicing various Indian airports.
And as they go through the facility they drive that growth. I think that is again set to grow and
are completely within that temperature you will see that growth. I think it will
controlled facility which means that we How many cargo airlines come to BLR come out of electronics, consumer
can guarantee to our customers or Airport right now and what capacity goods, agriculture, perishables - we do
farmers or pharmaceutical companies addition will be coming in this year and a lot of flowers, eggs - things like that.
that you can get from say when they the next two years? Equally, you will see growth in new
produce or cut it or ship it and within It is very difficult to predict that but I sectors that may not be apparent today
24 hours it gets to its destination think what we are very thrilled about is but as India grows, I think, manufacturing
and that cold chain integrity is never that today three of the largest dedicated will be a huge area. You will see a lot
broken. So I think that's what we have freighter companies actually fly their more exports in manufacturing, under
done very successfully because if own aircraft here. We have Fedex, DHL ‘Make in India’ policy, so I have no doubt
you look at our export commodity for and Aerologic together and then we at all that in the early to mid 2030s, we
instance; our biggest numbers have have UPS and that’s not something that will have 90 million passengers and a
come from agricultural produce and you see at too many airports. I believe million and a half metric tonnes of cargo
pharmaceuticals (within that that alongwith Delhi we are the only - I think that will happen. It's a natural
export number). airport who actually has that advantage. sort of growth! 
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