Sharaf group, CWC tie up for logistics park

The Sharaf group, a Dubai-based shipping giant with diversified business interest, has entered into a strategic alliance with state-run Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) to build, operate and manage a logistics park near Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai.

This Rs 200 crore logistics park, developed by CWC and Hind Terminals, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Sharaf group, will have three warehouses of 30,000 sq ft for import, export and bonded warehousing facilities.

A logistics park is similar to a container freight station (CFS) situated near a port that handles import and export containers with customs formalities.

Group founder Sharafuddin Sharaf is expected to visit Mumbai on June 4 when the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar inaugurates the CWC Logistics Park.

Besides shipping business, the group has presence in areas such as retail fashion, retail electronics, cargo, logistics, financial services, real estate, warehousing and travel and tourism.

Mahendar Puri, chief executive officer, Hind Terminals, said, "The logistics park is located around 15 km from JN Port. This will be the only logistics park with rail siding infrastructure which will help in moving cargo straight to port by container trains. This is in addition to bonded warehouses and cold storage."

The facility will be developed in two phases with the first phase of 12.8 hectares completed and ready for operations. It is a fully-paved area of 70,000 sq mt for a container yard, that can store over 5,000 20-foot containers.

Speaking to Business Standard, CWC Manager A K Dubey pointed out that this was a private-public partnership. The logistics park can handle up to 12,000, 20-foot containers a month.

"There is assured traffic for this logistics park as leading shipping lines are associated to this project. To add, a rail track inside the park will expedite the cargo movements to JN Port, which handles over 60 per cent of the container traffic of the country," Dubey pointed out.

However, Dubey declined to divulge the details of the revenue sharing agreement of CWC with Hind Terminals.

Central Warehousing Corporation is operating 514 warehouses across the country with a storage capacity of 10.27 million tonnes providing warehousing services for various products ranging from agricultural produce to industrial products.