West Bengal to see Rs 4,300-cr investment in logistics by 2020: JLL

West Bengal will see an investment of Rs 4,300 crore in the warehousing and logistics sector by 2020, according to property consultant JLL India. The consultant has released a report ‘Bengal- Destination Next for Improved Infrastructure and Efficient Logistics’ at the Bengal Global Business Summit held here. “The next coming years (2018–2020) will see Rs 4,300 crore of investment in warehousing and logistics in West Bengal,” JLL India said. The report highlighted that the state is strategically placed to take advantage of the ongoing national projects and development into a hub for warehousing and logistics for the country as well as the ASEAN region. “The state that acts as a gateway to north–east and to South Eastern countries has a total stock of 11.6 million square feet of warehousing space. This is set to go up by CAGR 28 per cent with supply moving up to 22 million sq ft,” the report said. The key markets across the state that would see the first phase of development include, Dankuni, Alampur/Dhulagarh, Ulberia, Kalyani, and Sirakol, and mostly around Kolkata. Further, potential logistics nodes such as Asansol – Durgapur, Haldia and Siliguri would be seeing additional developments in the next phases. “West Bengal is standing at a turning point of logistics revolution with lot of opportunities knocking the doors,” said Ramesh Nair, CEO and Country Head, JLL India. The GST implementation has opened up floodgates for logistics opportunities in Bengal, he added. “It’s time to see how the state improves its status on Ease of Doing Business and adopts to the changing needs of the sector and embrace growth,” Nair said. West Bengal stands at an advantage with large scale infrastructure developments like Dedicated Freight Corridor, Multi-Modal Logistics Parks, Sagarmala Project and others.