One of the most ambitious policy efforts from the Indian government is Multimodal Logistics Parks, which aims to totally transform the nation’s logistics from the point-to-point movement paradigm to the hub-and-spoke model.
Reliance Industries (RIL), , was chosen by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) to build India’s first Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) near Chennai at Mappedu in November 2022. Adani Logistics was also in the fray for the tender.
On 184.27 acres, MMLP Chennai is being built at a projected cost of Rs 1424 crore. With an expected developer investment of Rs 783 crore, the MMLP would be developed in three stages. “Phase-1 development is anticipated to result in commercial operations by 2025. A logistics hub for the southern region will be established at MMLP in Chennai, which is 52 kilometers from Chennai Port, 80 km from Ennore Port, and 87 km from Katupalli Airport” read the statement by Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways press release.
According to the MoRTH announcement, it will be able to handle 7.17 million metric tonnes (MMT) of freight during a 45-year period.
The 35 MMLPs that the Indian government is building around the nation—of which 15 MMLPs are given priority over the next three years are going to be enormous buildings that are incomparably larger than any warehouses or other facilities that are already in operation in the nation.
By announcing its aim to finish processing bids and awarding three MMLPs at Bangalore, Nagpur, and Indore by March 2023, the Indian government has already expressed its resolve to do so.
The National Highways Logistics Management (NHLM), which is responsible for creating all 35 MMLPs, will have to launch a new procurement for MMLP Bengaluru in December 2022. The preceding bid was abandoned because it had produced a single bid scenario in which only RIL qualified. Therefore, MMLPs have unique difficulties and gaps.
Although MMLPs cannot address all system inefficiencies, they can address many of them like the absence of private companies to the dearth of rail networks, from the lengthy approval procedure to linking the current infrastructure there are many issues.
Alongside time consumption, the degree of industrial cooperation required would be utmost. The project would be one of its kind in entire South Asian Region.
