Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has successfully completed a three-month run of its bonded trucking service from Tirupur in Tamil Nadu to Kempegowda International Airport as part of its ambitious ‘Knitwork Connect BLR’ project. This is an initiative to boost connectivity between Tirupur – the ‘knitwear capital’ of India – and Bengaluru.
Started in April 2017 in collaboration with its cargo partners Menzies Aviation Bobba Bangalore Pvt. Ltd. (MABB) and Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt. Ltd. (AISATS), the project is aimed at accelerating international trade from KIA. It will enable exporters from Tirupur and surrounding areas to route their consignments through KIA in an ‘efficient, safe and highly process-driven manner’, a release said.
The initiative will enable exporters to save approximately 20 hours in the overall transit cycle.
“The cargo will be moved via purpose-built truck docks to achieve quick turn-around,” a BIAL release said.
Over time, KIA plans to extend this initiative to Coimbatore, Vaniyambadi, Ambur and other manufacturing clusters with the larger plan of developing Bengaluru airport into the “South Indian Cargo Gateway to Global Economies’.
Exporting from Tirupur via KIA
Trial period: 60 days
Goods: 200 metric tonnes of garments
Number of trucks involved: 55
Value of goods moved: ₹18 crore
Top destinations: Los Angeles, Nantes, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Lagos, Milan, Marseille, Atlanta, Oslo, Brussels, Zurich
