Logistics play a citadel role in the modern intelligent supply chain management. It is defined as the broad range of activities concerned with effective and efficient movement of semi-finished or finished product from one business to another or from manufacturer/distributor/retailer to the end consumer. It relates to freight transportation, warehousing material handling, protective packaging inventory control, order processing, and marketing, forecasting and other value added services. MMLP is the refined form of Logistics Park where various value added services are rendered in addition to rail/road based transportation. It is now-a-days a globally identified supply management and known by different names in different countries.
Current Scenario
Gujarat, being strategically situated on the west coast of the country, has emerged as one of the fastest growing industrial states with 26 districts in the land area of 1.96 lakh sq. km. It has the longest costal line of 1600 km hosting 1 major port and 40 non-major ports – Kandla, Mundra, Pipavav, Navlakhi, Magdallah ports are worth to mention. Endowed with only 6% of the geographical area and 5% of india’s population, Gujarat’s share at current prices accounts for nearby 6.7% of the national GDP. It accounts for 20% of the country’s total industrial production and contributes nearly 7% to the national GDP. The prominent cities of the state are Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Jamnagar. Several land marks achievements in respect of industries agriculture, commodities and infrastructure can be credited to Gujarat.
With a view to provide efficient logistics services, Indian Railways has embarked into a massive investment to create dedicated freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai (called Western DFC) and Ludhiana and Howrah (called Eastern DFC), which could provide high speed, heavy pay load only for freight traffic. Western DFC passes through most high density transport arteries of the country i.e. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar pradesh with a route length of 1483km.
Gujarat shares 38% of the route covering Valsad, Surat, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Palanpur. This corridor is expected to carry predominantly, container traffic, bulk and break-bulk cargo. To support this infrastructure, DMIC Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Special Economic Zones, MMLPs Investment Regions, Industrial Area are likely to be set up contiguous to Western DFC in the coming years.
Merits of MMLP
- Excellent transport links of rail and road
- Custom clearance facilities
- Round the clock services
- One window services
- Enhanced security systems
- Availability of more options to the users
- Value added services
- Indian Railways intend to develop MMLPs through PPP along with proposed DFC and at strategic locations for containerized as well as bulk and break-bulk cargo in order to enhance rail –co-efficient with resultant increase in the modal share of railways.
Role of Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB)
GIDB is continuously striving to harness the potential of public-private investment in infrastructure sector by identifying and creating specific opportunities. GIDB itself does not develop infrastructure projects but acts as a catalyst for their development.
The role of GIDB is to undertake the responsibility of the project preparation exercise. It supports the conduct of pre-feasibility studies for various project. If the project is found bankable, it could be offered to the public-private sectors for execution. These studies are conducted through reputed Consultants.
With this backdrop, GIDB has taken initiative for setting up logistics parks at 5 designated areas in Gujarat – namely Ahmedabad-Surendranagar, Palanpur-Mahsana, Gandhidham-Samakhiali, Bharuch-Dahej and Surat-Hazira. These are important industrial/manufacturing centres of petro-chemcials, pharmaceuticals, textiles, dairy product. Spices SSI and electronics goods contiguous to DFC/DMIC. GIDB has commissioned RITES with this study.