Improvement in aviation infra would offer better opportunities: Lufthansa
The Dollar Business Bureau Improvement in infrastructure in the aviation sector in India would offer better opportunities for business to cargo airlines, an official of Lufthansa Cargo on Tuesday told the Indian media. Lufthansa Cargo CEO and Chairman of Executive Board Peter Gerber termed the Indian aviation market as ‘interesting’ and said that growth was returning in the market. “Infrastructure (in aviation) has always been a key challenge for us. I believe if infrastructure is improved, there will be better opportunities for the business,” Gerber said. The Lufthansa Cargo, the arm of Germany’s largest airline Lufthansa, has enhanced its freighter services flights to Mumbai from three to four from the last month. He said that India has always been a vital market for Lufthansa, while adding, ...
Direct Port Delivery: To whose advantage?
By Abin Daya The Government is working to improve the ‘ease of doing business’ ranking of the country, and one of the areas of focus is the time it takes for manufacturers to get their imported raw materials and components, out of the port and into their factories. The numbers are not very encouraging, and it currently takes about 9-10 days to get a container out of the port and on its way to the manufacturer. With a view to improving this, the Direct Port Delivery arrangement was started in 2016. How is it faring? Please read on in this week’s update. The most important story of this week, definitely, is the 25 bps cut that the Monetary Policy Committee permitted on ...
Focus on improving railways infra for seamless traffic movement: Prabhu
The Dollar Business Bureau In order to create a proper logistics environment and seamless movement of traffic in the country, Ministry of Railways is focussing more to improve the railways infrastructure and also to speed-up the pace of infrastructure development, said Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday. “Railway Ministry is focussing more on improving the infrastructure of Indian Railways to create a proper logistics and seamless movement of traffic,” said Prabhu at an event organised by ASSOCHAM in New Delhi. “Therefore, we have decided to create an infrastructure at much faster pace. Already we are creating infrastructure twice to speed than previous year and will increase every year,” he added. Citing the Ministry’s achievement, Prabhu said that his ministry has sanctioned around 16,500 ...
India to trial run freight train from Dhaka to Istanbul
The Dollar Business BureauTaking a leaf out of China’s book, India is currently exploring the possibility of operating a transcontinental rail freight service linking Bangladesh with Turkey, covering a total of 6,000 km journey through various countries - Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. A high-level delegation consisting of railway officials, policy makers from nine South Asian and South-West Asian and Central Asian, along with representatives from several international and regional organisations, as well as the private sector will meet in New Delhi to contemplate upon the opportunities and hurdles of this ambitious connectivity project. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in collaboration with the Indian Railways Ministry has organised the meeting, ...
Major ports register cargo growth post demonetisation: Mansukh Lal
The Dollar Business Bureau Post-demonetisation, 12 main ports of the country have recorded a considerable growth in terms of cargo handled in the months of November and December by recording a rise of 11.2% and 12.7%, respectively. “Cargo handled by major ports after demonetisation have shown a growth in comparison to the same period last year,” Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, told Rajya Sabha in a written response. The Minister said 56.7 million tonnes of cargo was handled by the ports in month of December last year (growth of 12.7%) and registered 54 million tonnes cargo in the month of November (a growth 11.2%). During the April-October 2016period, these ports handled 370 million tonnes of cargo. In FY 2015-16, the major ...
Has demonetisation hurt India's logistics industry?
Deepak Kumar When he was 17 Ashwini Kumar moved from his village, in Jharkhand, to Haryana where he spent his next 19 years working as a truck driver, transporting goods from Delhi NCR to various ports in India. For Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a digital cashless economy has had no practical relevance. For, he has never had a bank account and had never used a debit card to make any purchase. The only time Kumar visited a bank was when he had to deposit money into his wife’s bank account. “I have always been paid in cash for my work, and have always used hard cash for buying daily items. I have no idea how to withdraw money ...
Major reforms in the offing in freight sector, says Prabhu
PTI Major reforms are underway in freight sector with reduction of cargo charges announced in rail budget for the first time, and it will benefit the railways in a big way during the coming days, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said. "In our country due to non-running of time-tabled freight trains, most of the cargo is not coming to railways... when will the goods train reach no one knows. "But to change this scenario we have already started a programme and two pairs of time-tabled container trains - 'Cargo Express' - have already commenced and I am happy to share that they reached their destinations ahead of their scheduled time," Prabhu said after flagging off a time-tabled container (weekly) train between Nagalapalli and ...
