Buoyed by the success of its maiden air cargo service to India’s northeastern states a couple of months ago, the Department of Posts (DoP) is now seeking government permission as well as funding to acquire or lease at least five more aircraft to expand its freighter service.
The DoP has said it has been given in-principle approval for the expansion plan, but is seeking immediate funding approval so as to add at least one more freighter as soon as possible. The plan would then be to phase in the remaining four freighter aircraft as soon as possible in order to boost the efficiency of the domestic mail and parcel delivery system.
The DoP also wants to introduce its air cargo service in the northern, western and southern regions with Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai functioning as their regional hubs.The DoP launched its air cargo service with one leased Boeing 737-200 from Air India to improve its delivery of mail, parcels and other articles to the seven northeastern states and to provide more options for exporters.
The total investment to date amounts to Rs 120 million (US$3 million), including the lease amount, and passenger to freighter conversion capable of carrying 15 tonnes of freight, according to Indian media reports. The flight now operates on the Kolkata-Guwahati-Imphal-Agartala route, with Kolkata being the regional hubfor the service.
The DoP said the service has been so successful that demand was more than twice the existing capacity of the aircraft.