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Industry and Infrastructure 293

Figure 31a: Vande Bharat Mission- Arrivals Figure 31b: All-India Air Cargo
in lakhs (As on December 13, 2020) (lakh tonnages)

3.0

2.5
2020
2019
2.0
1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov
Source: Survey calculations based on DCCA data.

8.45 Air passenger travel and aircraft movements are predicted to reach pre-COVID level in
early 2021 as a result of swift and decisive interventions and effective measures put in place
by the Government (Box 8). Government has also entered into air-links or air transport bubble
arrangements with 23 countries to facilitate the movement of passengers between the respective
countries and India.

Box 8: Initiatives to ensure smooth and efficient handling of
Cargo during Lockdown COVID

• Ensured 24 x 7 operations of the cargo terminal facilities, with suitable health safety measures.
• Incentivised early clearage of air cargo warehouses at airports to leave clear passage for
essential shipments.
• Large increase in freighters aircraft from 6 to 20 dedicated air freighters
• Air freight capacity added with over 150 passenger aircraft deployed as cargo-on-seat flights
• Created dedicated facilities of 3,800 sqm in record 6 days for storage and distribution of import
cargo medical supplies at Delhi airport.

• Created temporary warehousing facility at other airports
• Project Reach – a dedicated team to reach out to customers on a continuous basis for deliveries
and to support them to clear their cargo
• E-Delivery Order and E-Gate Pass introduced at airports in July 2020 for electronic submission
of documents.
• Real-time solutions of varied nature (customs, regulatory, and logistics) provided to remove
impediments faced by Indian medical and health services (hospitals, laboratories, NGOs
carrying out relief operations) and the manufacturing sector due to disruption of global and
domestic supply chains and production lines.
• International Medical and PPE essentials were made available: 121 freighters-cum-P2C moved
158,000 packages with 2,817 MT from Singapore/China to India.