Bollore Logistics India has successfully moved aid & relief and healthcare shipments from Mumbai, to Yangon, Myanmar. The company has successfully organised these tasks through two charter flights. The first flight was carried out on April 29, 2020 with Spice Jet using Boeing 737-700F and the second flight was operated on May 15, 2020 on Indigo’s Airbus A 320, a passenger aircraft used as a makeshift freighter. India team closely monitored the charter planning and cargo execution to ensure cargo readiness for loading prior to flight arrival to avoid any last-minute delays and rollovers. The team proposed the most economical and time bound solution in close coordination with Myanmar, to the clients who awarded their shipments from various locations within India.

Indian Railways has transported 82.27 million tonnes of essential commodities, in the month of May, compared to 65.14 million tonnes in April, showing an increase of more than 25 percent. Indian Railways has transported 175.46 million tonnes of essential commodities from April 1, 2020, to June 1. From April 1 to June 9 Railways loaded 12.56 million tonnes of food grains as compared to 6.7 million tonnes in the same period last year. To ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items, Railways are running time-tabled parcel special trains on select routes. Total 1,37,030 tonnes of consignment has been loaded in these parcel trains. Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc in small parcel sizes is very important during the lockdown. In order to fill in this vital need, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by e-commerce entities and other customers including state governments. In order to ensure the timely delivery of essential commodities for citizens and goods vital for energy & infrastructure sector, Indian Railways has maintained its freight corridors fully functional in spite of the Covid-19 lockdown and has been successful in meeting the needs of both the households sector and industry. From March 23 to June 9 more than 31.90 lakh wagons carried supplies to keep the supply chain functional. Of these, 17.81 lacs wagons carried essential commodities like food grains, salt, sugar, milk, edible oil, onions, fruits & vegetables, petroleum products, coal, fertilizers etc. throughout the country.

The Singapore-headquartered shipping company Pacific International Lines (PIL) has introduced a new India service named China-India Express (CIX) connecting Tianjin and Qingdao in North China to Indian ports Nhava Shava and Mundra. With the maiden voyage to leave from Tianjin Port on June 5, the service also links Kaohsiung in Taiwan, Singapore, Port Klang in Malaysia and Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka. Rotation of CIX Tianjin – Qingdao – Kaohsiung – Singapore – Port Klang (West) – Nhava Sheva – Mundra – Colombo – Port Klang (West) – Singapore – Tianjin.

Mapletree, a Singapore-based developer-cum-investor, has invested Rs 300 crore in a logistics park project of Pune-based KSH Infra Industrial Park. The deal pertains to 0.7 million square feet (sq. ft) of Grade A logistics park KSH in Chakan, Pune. This deal is part of a 1.2 million sq. ft park that the firm is developing in the Chakan area of the city. The entire development and leasing of the project will be undertaken by KSH Infra. KSH Infra Industrial Park has entered into a forward sale agreement with Mapletree, wherein the investor has committed to buy the park at a pre-agreed valuation along with pre-defined technical specifications. The park is EDGE Certified and lays great impetus on the importance of green development. The entire park aims to be healthier, more productive, and help reduce stress on the environment. The buildings are designed to be more energy and resource-efficient, resulting in energy savings, and a reduction in utility costs in the long term for its clients.

To end its dependency on others, like Rehmankheda in Lucknow, the district Varanasi has taken a step ahead with the efforts to get its own packhouse. The step was taken after the success in export of fresh vegetables and fruit from farms of Varanasi and adjoining region in the markets of Dubai and London. The state government has already sanctioned the construction of a packhouse by mandi parshad in Varanasi and land is been identified in the industrial estate of the UP State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA) in Karkhaiyo area. According to Deepak Agrawal, Divisional Commissioner, Varanasi Divison, “A cold storage of 30 metric tonne storage capacity is already being developed at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport.” He adds, “We have started talks with the officials of Airport Authority of India to allow establishing a temporary packhouse of two to three metric tonne capacity with the same cold storage and after a final decision is taken by the AAI, the temporary packhouse would be made operational till a full-fledged packhouse is established at Karkhioyao.”

To modernise farm logistics and supply value chains in line, the agriculture ministry has created a cell. The decision has taken after the recent announcements of reforms in the sector by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The reforms cell will help coordinate efforts to streamline supply and transportation of farm produce, and also aid projects to add value to primary farm goods for better prices to the farmers This includes making amendments to the six-decade-old ‘Essential Commodities Act’ and pushing two ordinances which will free up farm trade from all restrictions and guarantee a legal framework for pre-agreed prices to farmers. The government hopes that scaling back the ECA, 1955, will help drive up investment in cold storages and the food supply chain. Cold storages are refrigerated warehouses that can store perishables for up to six months. Refrigerated old stocks can cool food prices in times of scarcity.

After the resumption of exports to Bangladesh through Bengal’s Petrapole land port, stakeholders in the neighbouring country have expressed despair, saying the situation has led to a crisis in industrial output and skyrocketing of prices of perishables there. According to the stakeholders, unavailability of drivers to take cargo to Bangladesh and problems related to parking of trucks in Petrapole has led to the crisis. “Even though trade has resumed, but due to complexity in your systems, export-import is not taking place to its potential of 500-700 trucks a day. A mere 10-20 trucks crossing the border will not achieve any business purpose,” Mafizur Rahman Sajan, President, Benapole body, said in the letter to the FIEO.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport has appointed Pradeep Panicker as the new Chief Executive Officer. Panicker has replaced SGK Kishore in this role. Prior to this, he was the deputy CEO of GHIAL, since January 2018. Before that, he served the GMR Delhi International Airport in different roles and responsibilities for 13 years since he joined in 2004. Prior to this role, Panicker was also associated with Mumbai SEZ Development Company, Feedback Ventures and L&T Finance. Domestic operations have been going on in the GMR-led Hyderabad International Airport, ever since the Centre decided to resume operations of domestic flights.

SpiceJet has added Moscow to its growing international cargo network, operating its maiden cargo flight from Hyderabad to Moscow carrying more than 16 tonnes of pharma supplies. The airline has deployed its Boeing 737 freighter aircraft for this cargo flight to Domodedovo Airport. “Moscow is the latest addition to our fast expanding cargo network which spans over 35 international destinations. We have added six new international destinations in the last 10 days. Since the lockdown began, SpiceJet has operated more than 2200 cargo flights and has carried around 15,700 tonnes of cargo,” says Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, SpiceJet. SpiceJet has operated special cargo flights to and from Abu Dhabi, Almaty, Baghdad, Bahrain, Bangkok, Bishkek, Cambodia, Cairo, Cebu, Colombo, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Huangzhou, Incheon, Jakarta, Kabul, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kyrgyzstan, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Male, Myanmar, Shanghai, Singapore, Sharjah, Sulaymaniyah, Tashkent, Ukraine, to name a few.

Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) is set to introduce the Air Cargo Community System (ACS) to further streamline air logistics. BIAL has signed an e-agreement with Kale Logistics Solutions to develop the ACS platform which is an effective business continuity tool that BIAL can provide to its cargo stakeholders. “As part of our digital transformation efforts, together with our cargo community, we are excited to implement a data-sharing platform,” said Satyaki Raghunath, Chief Strategy & Development Officer, BIAL. Amar More, CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions, says, “In the digital age, airports must be nimble to manage issues related to security, rising costs, unprecedented lockdowns and curfews. Kale’s ACS for BIAL is a next-gen community platform, which will enable collaboration between stakeholders in the supply chain to launch new services and deliver superior customer experiences.”