Hyderabad: With an estimated 3.6 billion doses Covid-19 vaccines that are expected to be produced by different manufacturers in Hyderabad over the next 18-24 months, Hyderabad Air Cargo is emerging as an important COVID vaccine management center.
The GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) has handled more than 100 tons of it in recent months COVID vaccines distributed from Hyderabad to different parts of the country.
For the first time in India on May 1, GHAC successfully handled the large import shipment of the Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, which requires specialized handling and procedures to achieve the strict time and temperature constraints (-20 degrees Celsius). The operator meant an important milestone for the country, the operator said Friday.
GHAC is a WHO-GSDP (World Health Organization-Good Storage and Distribution Practices) certified large Gateway site in India. It is uniquely positioned to handle temperature sensitive cargo and ensure its seamless distribution. It is equipped to serve both incoming and incoming vaccines by providing world-class infrastructure for the necessary temperature-controlled zones.
As Hyderabad is India’s leading center for pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing, GHAC has developed the necessary infrastructure and plays an active role in ensuring uninterrupted cold chain for Covid vaccine supply.
In order to anticipate the boom in the movement of Covid Vaccines in Hyderabad, GHAC, has expanded its land and air facilities and streamlined processes to meet the unique requirements for vaccines and temperature-controlled pharmaceutical products.
The existing pharmacy center is also being expanded to almost double the area for handling increased movements of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. It also increased the capacity of all temperature zones – 15-25 degrees, 2-8 degrees and -20 degrees Celsius.
The entire pharmaceutical area, including the newly expanded area, is equipped with temperature and humidity sensors with alarm warnings and CCTV surveillance to monitor the temperature excursions in real time.
The registration and monitoring of the temperature is done with data loggers in exclusive cold storage for temperature sensitive cargo such as vaccines / pharmaceutical products.
GHAC is introducing ‘Cold Super Store’ as part of the expanded pharmacy zone to mitigate any temperature outages while unloading pharmaceuticals.
It has launched a specially built large Cool Dolly, a mobile refrigeration unit for transporting large pallets to the aircraft, which maintains the cold chain.
GHAC recently partnered with Dubai Airports to launch ‘HYDXB-VAXCOR’, a first strategic initiative in the industry to address the unique logistical challenge of transporting vaccines between Dubai and India through Hyderabad Airport as a hub .
GHAC said its e-reception system ensures carefree entry and exit of refrigerated trucks on land. To ensure the delivery of the last mile, GHAC facilitates the transportation of cargo to different parts of the country with its trucks that provide service to road hauliers.
GHAC is also working on improving technology and recently integrated Vaccine Ledger, a next generation chain solution to deliver a better tracking solution and real-time monitoring of vaccines from Hyderabad.
GHAC’s largest airline partners connect Hyderabad with different parts of the country and the world. The airport in Hyderabad currently has direct services to 58 domestic destinations and about 150 destinations worldwide, including all the major cargo hubs in the world.
To facilitate connectivity in its extensive catchment areas, GHAC has partnered with the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) to connect the first mile and the last mile in different parts of South and Central India. TSRTC has been operating its fleet successfully for the past six months.
Source: The Siasat Daily