Custom clearance facility at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport soon

GUWAHATI: Exporters from the North Eastern States will no longer have to go to Kolkata to get custom clearance for their goods. The Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport at Borjhar in the city will soon have custom clearance facility.

An official of Airports Authority of India here told The Sentinel that the AAI has created all required infrastructures and acquired necessary permissions to start the custom clearance facility at LGBI airport. He said the facility is likely to be formally inaugurated at the airport by the end of December this year or early part of January next year.

The LGBI airport will be first ever airport in the North East to have the custom clearance facility. At present, exporters have to go to Kolkata for getting customs clearance, which adds to their costs.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), an export promotion organization under the Union ministry of commerce and industry has been trying hard to set up a custom clearance centre at the LGBI airport for a long time. The APEDA recently exported a consignment of fresh beans, locally known as urohi, on a trial basis from Assam to London. This was for the first time that a trial shipment of fresh beans has been exported to overseas destination from Assam.

In January this year the APEDA had successfully exported trial shipments of fresh pineapples from Ri Bhoi district of Meghalaya besides sending consignments of oranges produced in the NE States to overseas markets.

The APEDA is planning to export oranges to Dubai in December this year. “We are trying to send more consignments of other fresh fruits (including a citrus fruit used for flavouring) and vegetables from the NE region to the international market,” the official said adding that the APEDA has also taken initiatives to persuade domestic carriers to charge competitive freight rates for shipping the perishables grown in the region.

The official said creating customs clearance facility at LGBI airport will make export business from North East very viable.

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