‘Improved cargo movement will benefit farmers’

“The government wants to double the income of farmers. We think that cargo will play an important role here. Transport should not become a bottleneck for farmers who are producing quality goods which have a good demand in market,” he said. 

“Two things – cargo and freight – will play an important role in this and we are trying to concentrate on it,” Raju said, adding “We have created a subsidiary of Airport Authority of India (AAI). They are focussed on strategies on how to develop cargo movement through airlines.” 

Noting that civil aviation activity had been limited mostly to passenger segment in India, he said “We need to expand now. In India, the movement of cargo through airlines is hardly existing because you have only two airlines and three aircrafts as compared to hundreds of aircrafts in other countries.” 

“We need to develop the cargo movement using airlines. The genuine concerns will be to reduce the dwell time. Globally, it is two hours. If you have time of 72 hours, then perishable goods are gone,” he said.