Over the past six years, revenue from the export of perishable cargo from Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport has come down drastically. The export of perishable goods like fresh vegetables and fruit, produced in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and exported to Europe, came down to zero in the fiscal 2015-2016 from its peak of 908 metric tonnes in 2009-2010.
The journey of perishable cargo has never been smooth. The Perishable Cargo Centre at the airport has been handling the export of baby corn, snow pea, sugar snap, okra and other vegetables to London since July 2006.
Initially, Jet Airways used to operate the flight but once the private airlines pulled out due to recession, Air India filled the breach. The export was suspended for a year following a dry spell after which Air India withdrew its Amritsar-London-Toronto flight on October 30, 2010.
Revenue from international cargo came to nearly Rs 1.5 million in 2015-2016 from its peak of about Rs 16.6 million in 2011-2012.
A majority of the non-perishable goods exported were tobacco products, sports goods, ready-made garments and others.
Aviation Consultative Committee member Shwet Malik, MP in the Rajya Sabha, sees a conspiracy behind these bad turn of events for the Amritsar airport. He said minutely reading the data revealed that the fall of revenue at the airport coincided with the handing over of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport to a private entity. He alleged that in order to give maximum monetary benefits to the privately-run Delhi airport, flights from Amritsar were diverted, causing a steep fall in the revenue.
He said he had sent a letter to Union Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju to conduct an inquiry committee to probe the reasons behind the fall in the revenue of the Amritsar international airport after 2011.
(1 Indian Rupee=0.015USD)
Source: tribuneindia.com
