West Bengal to see Rs. 4,300-crore investment in logistics by 2020: JLL India

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West Bengal will see an investment of Rs. 4,300 crore in the warehousing and logistics sector in the next coming years till 2020, according to property consultant JLL India.

The consultant on Wednesday released a report ‘Bengal- Destination Next for Improved Infrastructure & Efficient Logistics’ at the Bengal Global Business Summit 2018 being held in Kolkata. The report highlighted that the state is strategically placed to take advantage of the ongoing national projects and development into a hub for warehousing and logistics for the country as well as the ASEAN region.

Incidentally, the report was released at the sectoral session on ‘infrastructure’ which was hosted by Credai Bengal on the second day of the business summit. The session focussed on the sunshine sector of “warehousing & logistics”.

According to JLL, the knowledge partner for the session, the proposed investment of Rs 4,300 crore will give “orbital velocity to the state. An estimated 12,000 plus jobs was also likely to be created by warehousing alone and warehousing space was expected to grow at CAGR of 28% with supply moving up to 22 million sq.ft. in West Bengal by 2020.” The state that acts as a gateway to north-east and to south eastern countries has a total stock of 11.6 million square feet of warehousing space.

The key markets across the state that would see the first phase of development include Dankuni, Alampur/Dhulagarh, Ulberia, Kalyani, and Sirakol, and, mostly around Kolkata. This apart, potential logistics nodes such as Asansol – Durgapur, Haldia and Siliguri would be seeing additional developments in the next phases.

West Bengal is standing at a turning point of logistics revolution with lot of opportunities knocking the doors with large scale infrastructure developments like Dedicated Freight Corridor, Multi-Modal Logistics Parks, Sagarmala Project and others aiming to integrate multiple modes for a seamless logistics & distribution, said Ramesh Nair, CEO & country head, JLL India.

The GST implementation has opened up floodgates for logistics opportunities in Bengal, he added. “It’s time to see how the state improves its status on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and adopts to the changing needs of the sector and embrace growth,” Nair said.

Some of the national developers who plan to create space include IndoSpace, Embassy Industrial Park, Jalan Industrial Park, Srijan Logistic Park, Frontier Warehousing and Apeejay Surrendra Group. Embassy Industrial Parks CEO Anshul Singhal announced his decision to invest Rs 1000 crore in WB over the next 3 years which could provide employment to 1000 people across the state.

According to Credai Bengal president Nandu Belani: “Bengal is witnessing growth in various real estate sectors coupled with government’s push for infrastructure and the state’s strategic location in eastern India. Going forward, we would be seeing many investments of different types and sizes in this space across the state. We showcased the sunshine industry of ‘warehousing’ at the summit because the sector has enormous opportunities for real estate players as the sheer number of key warehousing.

Source: THE ECONOMIC TIMES