Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) on Wednesday facilitated the delivery of vials of Covishield vaccine across 22 destinations in the country.
The first vaccine shipment departed from the airport at 5:20 AM to Goa through GoAir carrying two boxes of the vaccine followed by the shipment to Rajkot at 6 AM through SpiceJet carrying seven boxes.
The SOPs implemented by the airport in anticipation of the vaccine distribution saw the terminal register a cargo processing time of just seven minutes, right from goods acceptance to dispatch at ramp.
According to a release issued by the airport authorities, the CSMIA facilitated distribution of 227 boxes, containing approximately 2,72,400 doses of the vaccine, which were delivered to Goa, Bagdogra, Rajkot, Ranchi, Imphal, Agartala, Cochin, Bhopal, Kanpur, Jammu, Srinagar, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Gorakhpur, Raipur, Dehradun, Varanasi, Indore, Trivandrum and Jabalpur through four airlines.
Being a pharma hub, CSMIA has placed a well-defined process for the faster turnaround of COVID-19 vaccine EXIM and trans-shipment movements.
The airport has deployed a dedicated COVID task force in order to reduce dwell time and facilitate advanced planning and collaboration between the airport and all stakeholders in this process. Moreover, the airport has also initiated a full-time 24x7 Customer Service Cell for COVID-19 vaccine EXIM consignments, in order to address customer queries, pre-alerts and status updates.
The airport, which is equipped with state-of-the-art amenities, has helped facilitate the seamless distribution of vaccines across India. In the wake of the pandemic, CSMIA has been relentlessly operating its cargo handling activities to cater to the greater need to mobilize and supply essential life-saving commodities across India and the world.
Even in such conditions, the airport continues to undertake precautionary measures such as thermal temperature reading, social distancing, sensor-based hand sanitizers, wearing PPE, and regular sanitization of cargo facilities.
