‘We need to support the cargo industry, develop infra’

Shankar Shinde, Chairman, Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) also expressed his views on the export cargo being grounded at the Chennai Airport terminal and said, “Firstly, if you are granting permission to any custodian, licensing any CFA’s or any airports, you must have compliances in place. Once you accredit them or provide them with a license, they will start operating in a trade. Shippers will go to them for getting their goods transported/ exported. Based on that trade goes into negotiations and commercials. The decision to halt the trade which is at it’s peak is not a good decision and already there’s economic crisis going on. We need to support the industry. There should be proper information given well in advance to the forwarders/ terminal operators to prepare for the upcoming situation and take alternate decisions or come up with solutions. There is need to develop adequate infrastructure at the airport but we cant stop the trade. Disturbing a market is not a good sign, there are contracts signed, confidence level between shippers/traders/ customers and carriers may get affected because of such decision. We would request the government to allow time to put regulations in place and now the extension has been granted till March 31st to convert to RA. So, hopefully things will be normal soon.”