75% of modernisation work over at Air Cargo Complex
Seventy five per cent of the modernisation work of the air cargo complex at the Chennai airport is over and the remaining works will be completed before November this year. Chennai airport is the main gateway for the air cargo traffic from Southern India and mainly handles electronic goods, auto components, engineering goods, auto components and traditional leather products and textiles.

The upcoming facility will have a capacity to handle 8 lakh tonnes of cargo compared to its existing capacity of 1.5 lakh tonnes. It would replace the existing conventional way of handling cargo by introducing the Automatic Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). The ASRS would facilitate a seven-level vertical storage at a height of almost 17m. The import cargo would be stored in dedicated storage bins instead of existing open storage. The ASRS would have approximately 8000 bins, each with a capacity of 1.3 to 1.5 tonnes of cargo.

Other facilities planned at the complex include temperature controlled storage accommodating loaded airline ULDs, three fully secured strong rooms and dedicated isolated storage for hazardous cargo.