By NNN-PTI,
Kolkata : In a bid to automate and speed up loading and unloading of cargo planes, two sophisticated machines have been installed at the N S C Bose International Airport by the AAI.
The Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS) imported from Malaysia would be used for loading cargo planes and the Elevated Traffic Vehicle System (ETVS) from Germany for unloading them, Senior Manager (Cargo) N S C Bose International Airport K J Raju told PTI.
The machines, the first of their kind to be installed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), each costing Rs 10 crore would reduce the time for loading and unloading by at least ten hours, Raju said.
(One Crore: ten million).
The ASRS designed by Malaysian company Metronic has a capacity of unloading 2,000 tons of cargo per day, while the volume currently was 80 tons per day.
“So long we had to do everything manually which is very tedious and took a fair amount of time,” Raju said.
“We have imported this machine keeping in view the increasing volume of work in the next 25 years” he said.
The ASRS would unload cargo and store it after checking and numbering it in a matter of five hours, which now took 15 hours, Raju said.
The ETVS has a capacity of 280 tons which would help in loading materials directly from trucks to cargo aircraft.
“At present the volume of export at the airport is around 68 tons per day. We have imported this machine keeping in mind the increased demand of export particularly leather, garments and auto parts to countries like Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, UAE and the European countries,” Raju said.
Both machines are now at the cargo building in the International terminal, but they would be shifted to a new building which is under construction. –