Documents destroyed, exporters to bear brunt

It is the exporters who are going to face the brunt of the fire that destroyed the offices of nearly 20 airlines at the cargo terminal.

It is the exporters who are going to face the brunt of the fire that destroyed the offices of nearly 20 airlines at the cargo terminal. A number of important documents related to shipment were gutted which will pose problems to exporters who want to claim their goods.

HT Image

“To claim shipment, the documents with the airlines are very important. In this case the documents will be prepared again but it is a time-consuming process. If there are perishable items in the consignment, the losses would be doubled,” KS Anand, an exporter said. Though there are back-up files in the master computer, it wouldn’t reduce the delay by much.

Moreover, the area has been cordoned off for investigation. “It was an accident and there would be few delays in resumption of operations,” Ashok Seth, president of Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO). Only Air has started work from a makeshift office.

According to a DIAL spokesperson, “Export operations were suspended for around half an hour as a precautionary measure and have been normal thereafter. Processing of import cargo could be slightly delayed as customs offices are located near the area affected by the fire.”

Exporters on the other hand said that government and other responsible agencies should treat the incident as an exception and do their best to resume the operation. “If they can do away with the paper work and hand over the shipment to the concerned exporter, the loss can be minimised. A lot depends on customs officials,” an exporter said.

The offices contained papers related to both exported and imported goods, so the fire has also impacted the export of consignments.