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Garments worth Rs 2 billion pile up at Delhi airport

Nearly 2,000 tonnes of cargo containing readymade garments for exports has piled up at the airport in New Delhi, while international airlines have jacked up the rates.

Leading garment exporters say the government must step in quickly and ask Air-India to charter foreign carriers for clearing the backlog. The net worth of cargo pile-up is estimated to be over Rs 2 billion.

For garment exporters, January to March is the prime period. "But the crisis has never been so severe in the past decade," said Vinod Chopra, president of the 1,500-member Apparel Exporters' and Manufacturers' Association, or AEMA.

He said some exporters had shifted their cargo to Bombay and Madras due to the pile-up, but the situation got worse there as well. Chopra said some shipments have been stuck for over 17 days now.

H K L Magu, former vice-chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council, or AEPC, said the cargo has been piling up for the past three weeks. "Some airlines are charging 1.5 times more than the scheduled rates. Yet, it takes a week before the shipment leaves."

S P Agarwal, president of the Delhi Exporters' Association, or DEA, said, "The airlines have started charging express or flash rates for which the shipment should be cleared within 24 hours. But this is not happening. They are looting and blackmailing the exporters."

Agarwal said the country's garment exports could suffer unless the problem is not solved soon. He said chartered flights should be introduced to clear the backlog on a no-profit-no-loss basis.

Since the in-coming traffic to India is not very high, international cargo carriers believe it is not economically feasible for them to introduce additional flights. Chand Anand, president of the All-India Garment Exporters' Common Cause Guild, or AIGECCG, said these very airlines were pleading before international fora some years ago for opening up the Indian skies.

"With no monitoring and checks, these players are enjoying every moment of this air capacity scarcity when helpless exporters are being compelled to buy space at 100 to 150 per cent premium over the prescribed regular cargo rates to Europe and the United States.''

Anand said garment exports are a time-bound cargo and several orders could face cancellation unless the government proceeds against these airlines for unfair trade practices.

Rakesh Vaid, president of the Garments Exporters Association, or GEA, said new Air-India flights should be introduced to streamline the overflowing cargo. ''The carrier has a moral duty to see that the country's exports do not suffer.''

Various associations of garment exporters have met Union Textiles Minister Kanshi Ram Rana and Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav.

However, the ground reality remains very much the same it was several weeks ago.

UNI

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