subject: Bhadra International To Improve Indias Ground Handling Services [print this page] With its outdated airports and infrastructure, finding quality Ground Handling services in India has been difficult for many global aviation companies in the past. However, it is not true anymore because Bhadra International India Limited (BIIL) plans to change that. Managing director, Prem Bajaj, says his companys aim is to match the world-class security and quality in providing Ground Handling services at Indias international airports.
Bhadra International India Ltd. was formed by Bajaj back in 2000 when he realized that as the Indian economy was liberalized and grew, demand for aviation would also mushroom and modern Ground Handling services using the latest state-of-the-art battery operated equipment would be required. Bhadra has since spent over $100 million to procure the latest equipment and providing facilities to ensure personnel are properly trained to use this latest machinery.
At present, Bhadras main focus is Southern and Eastern India where it provides ground support services for ramp, passenger, cargo and general aviation at Chennai, Kolkata, Calicut, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Trichy and Mangalore airports. In future, however, Bajaj plans to further expand his companys network by offering the professional handling services, so often in short supply, in one of the worlds fastest growing aviation markets. We employ the most highly skilled staff and supply ground support for our customer airlines that is efficient, safe and always on-time with a smile, he adds.
Today, the company operates the latest models of passenger buses from Cobus, as well as Trepel cargo loaders, Rheinmetall Air Start Units, Schopf push back tractors and state-of-the-art conveyers. INSA auto-steps and air-conditioning units manufactured by TLD France and ground power units from Hitzinger are also deployed at airports where Bhadra has concessions, alongside battery driven tow-tugs and recently acquired forklift trucks.
Bajaj is a staunch supporter of the Indian governments go green policies, which aim at reducing air pollution caused by the aviation industry. Many workers at airports suffer from lung diseases because of diesel pollution, he says. I am working for the day when the majority of ground handling equipment will be eco-friendly.
Bhadra International has joined hands with Danish-based ground handler, Novia, to improve the training of its personnel. As a result, Bhadras passenger handling now, says Bajaj, has the expertise to deal with the passengers in a friendlier manner and with a humane touch, and with continual improvement to achieve the ultimate objective of 100% on-time performance of flights with utmost safety and security of passengers, cargo and aircraft movements.
In the years ahead, he says, Indian airports will continue to improve service levels with Bhadra to the fore. In keeping with international norms, Indian airports, which until now were a neglected group, are rapidly modernizing, he explains. Even some of the airports have been privatized and the facilities at the private airports such as Kochi, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are now up to the best international standards.
Some of these, such as IGI Delhi, with 78 gates, 97 automated walkways and 95 immigration counters, now rank among the very best in the international arena. And the projected plans of Indias international and domestic airlines to add more than 1000 aircraft in the next five years are an indication of where civil aviation in India is going be in the near future. And Bhadra International will also be there with the latest state-of-the-art equipment, well trained full time staff whose background antecedents have been fully checked by the relevant Indian security agencies and are available so that the security at Indian airports is as tight as it has never been in the past when part-time employees, sometimes with no proper security clearances, were providing the necessary Ground Handling services in India.
