Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
‘Infrastructure status’ typically helps to raise long-term funds at low rates and attract significant foreign investments.
The Government’s recent move to grant infrastructure status to the logistics sector is extremely progressive and will to make funding easy and cheap for companies that operate industrial parks, cold chains and warehousing facilities.
With massive investments likely to flow in the logistics sector, the Government’s plan to develop 35 MMLPs to serve as centres for freight aggregation and distribution, multimodal transportation, storage & warehousing and value-added services, is advancing in the right direction.
As per the Government’s notification dated 20th November 2017, logistics infrastructure was included by insertion of a new item in the renamed category of ‘Transport and Logistics’.
Logistics infrastructure includes Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) comprising Inland Container Depot (ICD) with a minimum investment of INR 50 crore and a minimum area of 10 acres, Cold Chain Facility with a minimum investment of INR 15 crore and a minimum area of 20,000 sq.ft., and/or Warehousing Facility with a minimum investment of INR 25 crore and a minimum area of 1 lakh sq.ft.