Air express and courier firm Blue Dart is all set to add new cargo facilities and expand at existing ones at major airports to cut down on turnaround time for loading and unloading cargo and courier.
Expanding existing cargo units; will spend Rs 200 crore in 2008
MUMBAI: Air express and courier firm Blue Dart is all set to add new cargo facilities and expand at existing ones at major airports to cut down on turnaround time for loading and unloading cargo and courier.
The company is setting up a 1000 sq m temporary facility at Hyderabad Airport at a cost of about Rs 20-25 crore, which would be operational by end of March 2008. This would be increased to about 2500 sq m in the coming months.
Blue Dart currently has a 1,500 sq mt facility at HAL Bangalore International Airport and is constructing a bigger facility of 9,500 sq mt at Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), which is scheduled to replace HAL.
Anil Khanna, managing director, Blue Dart, said: “If HAL is not completely shut, we would retain our 1,500 sq m facility there, further increasing our space to 11,000 sq m in Bangalore.”
The new facility, which would be shared by DHL would be set up at a cost of Rs 65 crore and would be operational by April 2008.
The express major is expecting the approval for expansion of its 2500 sq mt facility at Delhi Airport very soon and would increase the space to about 4,400 sq m.
“This is a temporary facility for one year, further we will get 11,000 sq m space at Delhi Airport, for which we have already got approvals,” Khanna added.
The company has also applied for space enhancement at Mumbai Airport, which Khanna said will take some time due to space constraints there.
Last year, Blue Dart had announced its plan to invest Rs 1,000 crore in aircraft, facilities, warehouses, network hubs and technologies. The company has earmarked Rs 200 crore for the calendar year 2008, which would include the airport infrastructure development, setting up new facilities and acquisition of a new aircraft.
Following this, Blue Dart is also setting up 32 warehouses and transit hubs in this calendar year for an investment of Rs 25-30 crore. The few locations that have been identified are Hyderabad, Nagpur, Vizag, Pondicherry and some areas in Mumbai and Delhi. The company owns and operates one million sq feet of warehousing area and plans to double it in the next five years.
“This is part of our plan to set up 120 new premises for Blue Dart in 2008, which would include warehouses, offices and transit hubs,” said Khanna.
Of the 120 locations, 23 has been planned in the north, 11 in the east, 40 in the south and 46 in the west, and would be a mix of both old and new locations.
Blue Dart will also add a new Boeing 757 to its fleet by second half of 2008. The company, of which DHL Express Singapore Pvt Ltd owns 81.03%, currently operates four Boeing 737s and two Boeing 757s.
s_archana23@dnaindia.net
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