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NT Bureau
Chennai, Sept 26:

        Importers and clearing agents have expressed concern over the recent GO of the Ministry of Civil Aviation which reduced the free period for waiting cargo (dwell time) at the Indian airports from five working days to three days in order to reduce the transit and delivery time of goods.

        The GO would come into effect on 1 October and traders along with industrial houses have taken up with the MCA to review the order in the interest of import and export trade which would be affected due to its implementation. In Chennai airport, there were three operators handling the cargo clearance — Air India, Indian Airlines (both to be merged soon) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) which looked after a chain of coordinated processes including unloading and forwarding of cargo to their exclusive complex. Being the sole custodian for receiving and storing the import cargo, AAI could not undertake a 24 x 7 operation to process the documents related to customs and forward the consignment to the importer with minimum delay.

        'In principle, we are not against the reduction of free time for import cargo for we agree that airports should only be a transit point. But the implementation of the GO have to be matched up with steps to improve capacity constraints, shortage of manpower and woeful infrastructure,' said J Krishnan, chairman, Expert Committee on Logistics at the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI). Speaking at a press meet organised by the chamber, he said a host of inter-dependent agencies including those handling ground services were operating in cross-purposes without coordination which was of concern to the traders and customs agent, he explained.

        Once the cargo landed in Chennai airport, then a chain of process was handled by different agencies during which the traders and importers have no role at all. Invariably, there was a huge delay and cost-overuns in form of demurrages because of the slow process of handling and clearing the bulk cargo at the terminals. 'The problem of cargo handling and clearance was acute in Chennai airport which suffered from capacity constraint and bottlenecks. Whereas due to privatisation of Mumbai and Delhi airports, their infrastructure and ground services are picking up for good,' said Arun Bewoor, president, MCCI and director, International Flavours and Fragrances India Ltd. Calling for shoring up ground infrastructure and manpower for efficient movement of cargo, Bewoor said reducing the free time for goods without benchmarking the internal standards and process systems for unloading, clearing and other operations would only lead to end-users and importers paying up for the inefficiency of the ground agencies at the airports.

        Importers and clearing agents have also urged the Central government to amend the draft bill for setting up Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) as its jurisdiction was limited to air tariff and user fees for passengers, whereas the chamber was for including the cargo movement into the bill's ambit. Citing the provisions of Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) which regulated the interests of stakeholders in port trade and services in the country, the MCCI officials said the AERA Bill have to be changed to include a whole range of services offered at the airports including the clearing and forwarding of air cargo.