Work on Tamil Nadu’s first logistics park likely to start in June

The officials of the Chennai Port Trust who visited the project site last month expressed confidence that the work will begin in full swing in three months.

Earlier, in November 2022, the Road Transport Ministry had awarded Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) the contract for setting up the Chennai MMLP at a total cost of Rs. 1,424 crore.

The National Highways Logistics Management (NHLM) had received three bids, including Adani Group, for the Chennai MMLP. Two bidders had technically qualified for the financial bid opening.

The logistics park at Chennai is strategically located at 52 km from Chennai Port, 87 km from Kattupalli Port and 80 km from Ennore Port and will be a “focal point of logistics in the southern region”.

The MMLP, which is coming up on 184.27 acres of land at Mappedu village in Thiruvallur district, is close to the automobile and electronics manufacturing clusters on the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam industrial belt. Besides, it is in close proximity to the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (CPPR).

In order to develop the project, a Government Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been formed amongst National Highways Logistics Management Limited (NHLML), Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), Chennai Port Authority & Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO).

The SPV will provide 4-lane NH connectivity of 5.4 km with estimated cost of Rs 104 Crore and new rail siding to the MMLP site of length ~10.5 km with estimated cost of Rs 217 crore.

The project which is being built on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Transfer (DBFOT) model, has a total concession period of 45 years. Over a period of 45 years, this facility would be able to cater to a cargo volume of 7.17 Million Metric Tonne (MMT).

Various commodities, including textile, apparel, grain, electronics, consumer goods and automobiles and automobile components may be handled at the MMLP. The project will facilitate efficient, cost-effective and value-added logistics services such as cargo aggregation and disaggregation, distribution, inter-modal transfer, sorting, packing, repacking, etc.