HIAL awards cargo contract to Menzies Aviation PIC of UK

Hyderabad, May 02 (UNI) GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (HIAL), developing the world-class international airport here in Shamshabad, crossed an important milestone when it awarded the contract to Menzies Aviation PIC of UK for operating a world-class cargo warehouse.

The contract envisaged setting up a joint venture company for developing and managing the cargo warehouse. HIAL would own 51 per cent equity, while Menzies Aviation PIC would hold the rest.

The cargo terminal would be built on 3.5 acre in the new international airport premises at an estimated cost of Rs 50 crore, and equipped to handle 100,000 tonne of cargo per annum.

The scope of the cargo facility services would include a fully automatic cargo warehouse, with facilities like elevated transfer vehicles to handle cargo.

The terrminal would use state-of-the-art IT systems, which would ensure compatibility with customs and other user-agencies and it would have ultra-modern cold storage, heavy cargo and hazardous cargo storage space and disposal unit.

A special unaccompanied baggage area was being developed.

Besides, Menzies would bring in latest systems and processes and integrate with user agencies to enable cargo imports and exports most efficiently.

Currently, outward cargo from Hyderabad included pharmaceuticals products (around 70 per cent), perishable goods (around 14 per cent) and manufactured goods (around nine per cent). As far as imported cargo was concerned, it accounted mostly for manufactured goods (about 50 per cent,) followed by perishable goods (30 per cent) and pharmaceuticals (10 per cent).

UNI DB AA 2053