"The biggest constraint for warehousing sector is the cost of land. Other logistic costs are also important. There is a need for states to simplify their licensing policy and the passage of goods and services tax (GST) would help promote the warehousing sector," Rai said at an Assocham event.
He also pitched for the use of modern technologies in the sector.
"Scientific storage facilities, better logistics and handling is needed here," he said.
Lack of trained manpower is another problem faced by the warehousing sector, Rai said.
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"We should have good training programmes in logistics and warehousing in our educational institutions," he added.
Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) Managing Director BB Pattanaik said land is the most critical need for the sector.
"It is becoming extremely difficult to procure land to set up a warehouse at strategic places owing to issues like land use problem and conversion of land use from agriculture to industrial," he added.
"Most part of the land available to government belongs to agricultural universities. The erstwhile non-functioning agriculture farms of state governments can be developed as agri-warehousing zones and allotted to private sector players on PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode or lease basis for agri-warehouses to address the land issue," he added.
Lack of automation in warehousing, dearth of trained manpower, lack of authentic data to develop policies and lack of infrastructure are significant issues that are faced by the domestic warehousing sector, Pattanaik said.