New Delhi: Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbanand Sonowal has announced the formation of a Special Purpose vehicle (SPV) for development of a multimodal logistics park (MMLP) at VOC Port in Chennai. The MMLP is to be developed through Public Private Partnership with the SPV providing land and connectivity and the actual MMLP infrastructure to be developed by a private developer.
He said that all the three stakeholders -- Chennai Port Authority, TIDCO and NHAI will be equity partners in the proposed SVP. The Minister informed that equity contribution or investment of the Chennai Port is the cost of the land amounting to Rs 167 crore; NHAI and NHIDCL contribution is of Rs l30 crore and that of the state government through TIDCO is Rs 50 crore.
The Multimodal Logistics Park will facilitate infrastructure for enabling seamless multimodal freight transfer, and specialized storage solutions, such as cold storage, warehouses equipped with mechanized material handling and intermodal transfer terminals for containers, bulk and break-bulk cargo. Further, the MMLP would be offering value-added services such as Customs clearance, bonded storage yards, quarantine zones, testing facilities, warehousing management services, post-manufacturing activities such as kitting and final assembly, grading, sorting, labelling, packaging, and so on.
The Chennai Port authority has acquired a land parcel of 121.74 acres on a 99-year lease village near Sriperumbudur is strategically located near the major automobile industrial clusters. The Government of India has taken a novel initiative to develop 35 Multi-Modal Logistic Parks (MMLP) under Bharatmala Pariyojana across the country to enhance the efficiency of Indian logistics and reduce the logistics costs.
It is proposed to develop MMLP in the land parcel of 121.74 now in the possession of Chennai Port. In addition to Chennai Port's land, the Government of Tamil Nadu through TIDCO will be acquiring another 36.23 acre of land and the investment for this will be made available by the state government. The required road connectivity infrastructure will be done by NHAI, and later a railway line is proposed from the nearest rail head near Kadambathur for a length of about 12 km.
