The Bengal government has identified five locations in the state to develop logistics parks that could attract investments worth Rs 10,500 crore.
“We have identified Dankuni, Durgapur, Tajpur, Malda and Siliguri as key areas for the development of logistics parks. The sector is labour-intensive and the government’s interest is in job creation. It is estimated that around 1.26 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities can be created,” Bengal commerce and industries minister Amit Mitra said on Saturday at a session organised by the CII.
According to a report prepared by KPMG and released at the CII event, the selection of these areas is based on regional connectivity, proximity to the industrial ecosystem, export infrastructure and industrial land availability.
According to the report, Bengal’s strategic location in the region along with increasingly available infrastructure and rising e-commerce demand is drawing interest from both domestic and global players.
“We already have interest from well known players such as Flipkart and Amazon and Reliance is also implementing its project. There are also developers with modern warehousing projects coming up in Howrah and Hooghly,” Mitra said.
According to KPMG the market size of the logistics sector in the state is estimated at $20 billion by 2020.
World Bank interest
The World Bank has submitted a conceptual plan to develop logistics infrastructure that could potentially attract investments of $300 million.
“The World Bank has submitted a conceptual master plan for the development of logistics infrastructure in and around the Calcutta Metropolitan Area. The World Bank is also undertaking a review of industrial infrastructure on the eastern corridor in the South Asian region encompassing Bengal along with other states such as Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. It is aimed at enhancing logistics competitiveness, employment generation, ease of doing business and investment opportunities,” Mitra said.
A meeting between World Bank officials and state government is expected soon to work on the scope of projects.
