The parking of trucks at the Mumbai airport cargo terminal will soon be shifted 1.5 km away, near the Leela Hotel in Andheri, in an effort to reduce congestion at the terminal. The new parking lot is already partly developed and the entire parking facility will be shifted there in the coming week.
The move will ensure easier transport of imported goods and help deliver goods meant for export to the cargo complex, located near the Air Traffic Services Complex, that sees around 500 transport trucks everyday.
Parking at the terminal is a major issue, as vehicles directly queue up outside the large entry gates and disperse indiscriminately onto the narrow arterial road leading to
bottlenecks on the approach road.
A GVK official said, requesting anonymity, that the company owned the parking lot near the Leela Hotel, and the lot can park around 200 medium-sized trucks. “This will lead to decongestion of the narrow cargo feeder road,” said the official.
However, the Shiv Sena-backed Maharashtra Maal Vahatuk Sena said this would adversely affect the business of the transporters affiliated to their unions. “Trucks that come to deliver goods (for export) will be directly hired by the traders on the spot who want to transport the received (imported) goods. This would become a first-come-first-served basis and kill competition,” said president Vijay Chitre, adding that he had written several
letters to GVK opposing the move.