By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOT

Just behind China, India is considered the next major manufacturing powerhouse. Infrastructure there, however, remains challenged, although air carriers are entering the market with a vengeance and airports continue to be developed and reconfigured.

For these reasons, Rajat Nag, managing director general of Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ABD), refers to India's infrastructure investment as unarguable. BusinessWeek magazine recently wrote: 'India today is about where China was a decade ago.' Given the speed at which China is developing its airports, the same can be said here. A chart complied by the magazine indicates there are 189 major airports in the United States, compared to 56 in China and only 17 in India.

Yet given the type of business investment that is taking place there, anyone in the know would agree that India today offers the most promising air cargo market in the world. Industry estimates indicate that domestic carriers in India will require about 165 freighters by the year 2025 as opposed to eight in 2005.

Consequently, airfreight operations in India have a lot to take advantage of in this huge potential market. The anticipated annual growth of 7.7% in the passenger traffic, well above the world average of 4.8% is also expected to contribute to growth in the freight potential. A study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) reports that the air cargo business has overtaken both shipping and railway freight traffic in the last three years. It stats that while air cargo movement has increased by 19%, shipping has grown by a little over 10% and railway freight by 9.2%. Domestic air cargo traffic has grown by an astounding 35% last year, while international cargo movement expanded by 15%.

BRING ON MORE AIR STRIPS

Aware of the potential for explosive freight growth, the Indian government is committing to infrastructure improvements and public-private partnerships that will support airport growth. As a result, the government is considering the development of some 300 airstrips and 35 non-metro airports with private participation to decongest the country's main airports. The modernization of Mumbai and Delhi airports and the construction of much needed greenfield airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad started already this year.

Bangalore's new $450 million airport is expected to be completed in April 2008. Bangalore, known as the Silicon Valley of India, is in competition with Hyderabad to become the new south India hub for air cargo. Its 4,050-acre new airport is being designed to handle 11 million people, annually and a27 aircraft per hour. Its initial cargo capacity is expected to be 140,000 tons per year, a figure that is anticipated to grow to 300,000 tons per year by 2012.

Rajiv Gandhi Hyderabad International Airport is slated for a March 2008 completion. The $560 million airport, being constructed on 5,400 acres is expected to initially handle 12 million passengers and 100,000 metric tons of cargo annually and 40 million passengers and one million tons of cargo when fully developed.

In May the Union Cabinet approved the construction of new international airport at Navi Mumbai to be developed as a greenfield project via public-private partnership funds. A second airport in Mumbai is needed given air traffic projections of 27.5 million passengers annually in 2010, 40 million in 2015 and peak, and a peak 80 million in 2026.

A new airport at Sriperumbudur and Tiruvallur near Chennai is also being proposed. Other airports slated for development are Shirdi (greenfield airport), Solapur, Phalton, Dhulia, Karad, Jalgaon and Chandrapur. Nagpur, slated as having India's busiest air traffic control with more than 300 international flights flying over the city every day in 2004, is being developed into a major cargo hub. Here is found the country's first Multi-modal International Cargo Hub (MIHAN), which was completed in 2006. Reports indicate the project is struggling, however. Boeing set up