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The first phase of expansion of the cargo terminal at Delhi's international airport is set to be completed in another month's time.
Turkish group Celebi Holdings, is the company in charge of the upgradation of the cargo facility at the Delhi airport, and the company has already spent $35.2 million on construction and $10.2 million for purchase of new equipment.
The complete expansion of the cargo terminal, which covers an area of 70,000 sq m , will be completed after a year.
Commenting on the expansion of cargo facilities in India, Ms Canan Celebioglu Tokgoz, Vice-Chairman of the Turkish company said, “It is good that India is looking seriously at its cargo infrastructure upgrade. India exports pharmaceuticals, for instance, in a big way. Lack of facilities will hold up growth.”
Celebi took over the management of the cargo terminal in 2009 and the company says the volume of cargo has grown already grown to 600,000 tonnes a year as against 430,000 tonnes, when the company took over in November 2009.
“In three or four years we expect that the volume of cargo coming into Delhi would reach one million tonnes per year,” said Mr Cemil Erman, President (Cargo), Celebi Holding.
With the growing volumes of cargo the company is also facing challenges in completing the expansion work.
“Our job has become more challenging as the volume of cargo is increasing at a rapid pace. We have to deal with even more congestion as we have begun to close down certain areas of the terminal for renovations,” added Mr Erman.
The company expects yearly revenue of $70 million for its operations at Delhi's cargo terminal and despite the challenge it prefers the brown field expansion contract. “We wanted the brown field contract because we wanted the customers immediately,” said Mr Erman.
Celebi is now also looking forward to bidding for the cargo terminal at Navi Mumbai. The company is already bidding for the cargo terminal tender at Mumbai's existing international airport.
According to Mr Jungbir Singh, Board Member, Celebi Holding, and the company's India representative, “If the Navi Mumbai project comes on stream, it will be very interesting as a lot of the business is likely to move there.”
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