Budget carrier SpiceJet on Friday operated its first flight as part of the multimodal cargo transportation project carrying 48 tonnes of cargo including garments from Dhaka to Spain for a global fashion brand, while availing an inter-connect of two modes of transport through road and air.
In this multimodal transportation of the cargo, the consignment was shipped first from Dhaka through Petrapole to Kolkata airport via road and then to New Delhi on a SpiceXpress freighter. From New Delhi, a SpiceXpress Airbus A340 cargo plane will transport the consignment to Spain. The aircraft departed from New Delhi at 8:15 pm, SpiceJet said in a statement.
Petrapole is the Indian side of the Petrapole-Benapole border checkpoint between India and Benapole of Bangladesh. The initiative will provide an impetus to the Indian government’s ”vision” of making India a transshipment hub, SpiceJet said in the statement.
Multimodal transport is a combination of different means of transport to facilitate the movement of cargo, making it faster and more efficient whereby more than one transport mode is involved to ferry the goods to their final destination which may include trucks, trains, ships, and airplanes.
The initiative was undertaken in association with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India’s logistics arm AAICLAS. it said. SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said, “We are proud to launch our first-ever multimodal cargo movement between Dhaka and Spain via Kolkata and New Delhi with the help of the civil aviation ministry and AAICLAS.”
Multimodal cargo service will actively and effectively contribute in streamlining cargo shipment across various domestic and international sectors, reduce cost and ensure self-reliance, helping realize Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, he added.
With a network spanning 63 domestic and 50 international destinations and a fleet of 19 cargo planes, SpiceXpress is capable of flying over 600 tonnes of cargo daily to domestic and international destinations. PTI IAS HRS hrs
