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Muscat airport launches feasibility study for proposed 'Cargo Village'

WORK has started on preparing feasibility studies for a Cargo Village at Oman's Muscat International Airport. The project aims to increase air cargo volume and revenues by 2020.

Cargo Village is one of 120 projects proposed for development in Muscat as part of the Tanfeedh Programme. According to the Implementation Support & Follow-up Unit (ISFU) of Tanfeedh, work has started to prepare the business model and feasibility studies for the project that aims to improve air cargo operations for both export goods and goods in transit, reported Muscat Daily.

"The movement of goods in Oman is impacted by a shortage of warehouse, which reduces the overall operational efficiency of existing warehouses. Therefore, this initiative aims to facilitate the movement of goods at Omani airports and identify freight forwarders for specific geographic locations in order to increase operational efficiency," stated Tanfeedh.

The Cargo Village project calls for the establishment of an air cargo terminal for import, export, re-export, postal shipping and transit centres. The village will be equipped with public facilities to carry out storage and shipping operations made by owners or tenants of already established buildings and facilities (warehouses, storage centres, units and parking lots).

The Cargo Village would be the first destination for companies specialising in air logistics activities. The project also aims to provide cold storage, general warehouses (bonded customs warehouses), and multifunctional rooms.

"All these measures will ease congestion and possibly enable expansion to improve cargo operations at the airport, enhance cargo handling, and generate additional revenue by providing additional services such as packaging," it added.

Tanfeedh observers noted that in order to promote multimodal transportation in cargo handling, the village project requires the creation of multiple modes of transportation that operate round-the-clock to support shipping and packaging on delivery times.

"Therefore, developing the infrastructure will require a linkage with communication and transport equipment, which will help provide telecom services, energy, and assistance tools. It will also help ease congestion by using the Inter-Model Connections System," said Tanfeedh.