GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) is in the process of expanding specific landside and airside facilities to handle the anticipated spurt in pharma and vaccine shipments to combat COVID-19 pandemic.
Plans are in place to increase the storage capacity for various vaccine types, related accessories and supplies. It is also upgrading the current capacity of cold container storage to handle the anticipated surge in supplies, informed airport sources on Tuesday.
With world-wide trials of vaccines to fight the continuing pandemic on full throttle and India producing about 60% of the world’s vaccines, Hyderabad as the pharma and vaccine hub will be an integral part of the Covid-19 solution with capacity to manufacture millions of doses, said airport sources on Tuesday. “COVID-19 vaccines require specialised handling, hence we are developing procedures in coordination with manufacturers and supply-chain players to mitigate any risk during transportation from production facility to the final destination,” the sources explained.
GHAC’s pharma zone is a WHO-GSDP (World Health Organisation – good storage and distribution practices) certified facility providing end-to-end unbroken cool-chain for pharmaceutical and vaccine shipments. “We have the experience of handling pharma from the last 12 years of operations and have a large fleet of modern temp-controlled cool containers plus the recently launched cool dolly — a mobile refrigeration unit for airside transportation of temperature sensitive pharma and vaccine shipments,” they said.
Cool zones/containers have temperature data loggers and humidity with alarm alerts and CCTV surveillance sensors to ensure better monitoring and control. RGIA is expecting material from Europe and other regions while exports could be towards Africa, Latin America and Asian destinations once various human trials are done. Discussions are being held with various stakeholders to meet specific requirements of export and import of vaccines, including the challenge of having multiple ranges of cold and ultra-cold minus temperatures. Dock levellers are being put in place at the truck dock area for multiple vehicle compatibility for quick mechanised handling of vaccine boxes. The expansion is to help quicken processing time and enhance operational efficiencies, they added.
