OPPI delegation met with the Senior Officials of GVK in Mumbai and GMR in Delhi, who are the custodians of the respective airports.
OPPI highlighted some of the bottlenecks at the Airports that include authorities not being able to assure cold room space despite getting advance notices from the companies about the possible unloading of large consignments of temperature sensitive products. Some of the other gaps include improper training and refresher courses for some of the handling staff that handle such products at the Airport. Storage of Pharmaceutical products along with meat and food products is against the GMP norms.
To bring in learnings in this area, OPPI organised a seminar with support from MIAL on, "Cold Chain Management of Pharmaceutical Products" at Sahar Air Cargo Complex, Mumbai, for various stakeholders, including porters and supervisors. This was followed by a visit of Supervisors and Managers to Roche Distribution Centre, Mumbai.
MIAL has already installed 4 new cold rooms for pharmaceuticals and DIAL has assured that the new Cargo Terminal expected to be commissioned later in the year will have around 4000 square metres of additional cold room capacity compared to the current cold room capacity of 400 square metres available at Delhi. Similarly, MIAL has agreed for a dedicated Cold Room facility for Pharmaceutical Products in the proposed new set–up.
OPPI plans to make this an ongoing exercise to partner continually with Port authorities and also provide training to the handling staff to ensure proper compliance. The coming months will see a major boost in cold room infrastructure and better facilities at the Mumbai and Delhi airport due to the initiatives taken by OPPI.