India’s first Air Cargo Policy will be unveiled at the two-day Global Aviation Summit starting here on Tuesday.
Despite registering a double-digit growth for nearly four years in a row, India has remained without a specific policy for air cargo.
Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, announcing this, said that over 30 countries were participating in the first-of-its-kind aviation summit.
“A policy to provide thrust to air cargo has been drafted for the first time and will fuel the growth of the aviation sector and boost the country’s economy,” he said.
Safety, affordability
Emphasising that security, safety, convenience and affordability were the key aspects, the Minister said the aviation vision for 2040 would address all the issues so that India will have sustainable growth in the sector at all times.
“We are trying to make a policy for air cargo so that the aviation market can grow, which, in turn, will boost the trade and economy of the country,” he said.
Mr. Prabhu said that the success of the aviation sector in the country was completely propelled by the participation of private players, adding that infrastructure for the movement of air cargo could be created in the same way.
The Minister said night hours, when air passenger traffic was negligible, could be used to airlift cargo.
Civil Aviation Ministry officials said that solutions to critical issues relating to agriculture and manufacturing output and their supplies had been sufficiently explored in the policy which was integrated with logistics.
Mr. Prabhu indicated that the government is of the view that the basic objective on which the logistics and cargo policy is being put in place is based on the premise that its context is important because both logistics and cargo are one of the biggest growth-driven sectors in India after services.
“Therefore, our efforts have been in that direction so that following announcement of the policy, the growth of agriculture, manufacturing multiply exponentially with air cargo movement picking up the anticipated movement with affordable tariff structure,” he said.
