India would like to explore setting up “air corridors” between the country and five Central Asian nations. The air corridors — similar to what India established in 2018 with Afghanistan — would include regular cargo flights with special clearing and Customs facilities to expedite the movement of goods, especially fresh fruit and other agricultural produce, the External Affairs Minister Mr S. Jaishankar said recently.
While flying time from Delhi for most of the Central Asian destinations is two hours, it may take two months for containers sent overland from India to reach these places. Availability of air corridors can boost trade in perishable goods, agricultural and food products, it was pointed out. Lack of “overland connectivity” had kept the total trade between India and Central Asia quite low at approximately $2 billion per year.
Source : Various Agencies