On Sunday, Chennai airport handled a single piece of cargo weighing 25 tonnes — the largest individual consignment in recent times, according to officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI). The cargo was on its way to Shanghai in China,
“Indian airports have handled even 70 tonnes in a wide-body aircraft, but it would comprise a combination of several consignments. This is perhaps the first time that a single-piece consignment weighing 25 tonnes was loaded from the airport,” an AAI official said.
The consignment was a furnace manufactured in a factory in Ambattur, according to Philip James of Helmann Worldwide Logistics, the firm that transported it.
“The furnace alone weighed 25,660 kg. Apart from the furnace, 12 more pieces were packed including the control panel, a cooling unit and the spares for the furnace. Together, we loaded 13 pieces that weighed 36,00,120 kg,” he said.
A road survey was carried out before moving the consignment to identify possible routes to reach the airport. On December 31, the furnace was transported in a trailer from Ambattur and reached the airport via Maduravoyal, Tambaram and Pallavaram. “Two cranes weighing 20 tonnes each lifted the consignment and it was loaded into the aircraft using high loaders; it departed on a Boeing 747 on Sunday evening,” Mr. James added.