West Bengal, which shares three international bordered and 10 landlocked states as neighbours, is working on an integrated logistics sector development policy and is expecting to roll it out in the next few months.
The state is looking forwards to attract an investment worth $20 billion in the logistics sector by using its unique locational advantage and harnessing its vast network of rail, road and river.
The upcoming policy of the state will harness the inherent advantages and upcoming facilities. It will focus on integrating fragmented logistics sectors, driving efficiency in storage infrastructure, optimising land cost, fostering technology adoption and last mile connectivity and multimodal network.
“The state government has sought feedback from industry to formulate a policy to support the growth of the multimodal logistic sector and realise the investment potential. Bengal is a very attractive proposition in logistics. Several companies have come in and set up logistic parks. The state has abundant land to offer to potential investors.”
~ Amit Mitra, State Finance and Industry Minister while speaking at the 13th CII Logistics Colloquium
Walmart-owned Flipkart has taken a 100-acre plot at Haringhata in Nadia to build a logistic park while Hong Kong-based ESR is setting up a park in Uluberia.
Apart from the locational advantage the state enjoys, the introduction of GST has given a big boost to the logistic sector as companies are now setting up warehouses based on nearness to market rather than for tax benefit.
Furthermore, the centre’s vigorously pushing on developing of the inland waterways to connect north India, Northeast and Bangladesh with Calcutta and Haldia port. Terminals are being built along the river Hooghly up to Benaras to allow loading and unloading of cargo.
The minister said 16 industrial parks have land to offer to investors, including 300 acres at Haldia and 500 acres each at Kharagpur and Panagarh, adding that are some of the fast-developing locations are Durgapur, Siliguri, Malda, Dankuni and Tajpur.
