With a waterfront of 950km, high road coverage and two international airports, Bengal can emerge as a logistics hub, says KPMG

Business advisory firm KPMG has identified five potential sites in Bengal that can attract investments worth $1.5 billion and create 30,000 direct jobs in the state.

According to a KPMG study released on Saturday at an event organised by CII, Bengal is well positioned to leverage its existing infrastructure in the form of a waterfront of 950 kilometres, high road coverage and two international airports to emerge as a logistics hub in the eastern part of the country.

“Five potential sites in Bengal offer the opportunity to develop end-to-end logistics parks with multi modal capabilities. Cumulatively these five locations — Dankuni, Durgapur, Tajpur, Malda city and Siliguri — have the potential to mobilise investments worth $1.5 billion and generate as many as 30,000 direct jobs,” the report said.

The Bengal government has announced a logistics policy for the state in a bid to attract investment in the sector.

E-commerce major Flipkart has already submitted a proposal to the state government to pick up 100 acres of land at Haringhata for a logistics hub with an employment potential of over 10,000.

“There is a huge scope of employment in the logistics sector and the industry will grow as well. Logistics management can also reduce the cost for the industry. So, development of the sector is a win-win for the state as well as industry,” said Amit Mitra on the sidelines of the event.

According to KPMG, the Indian logistics sector is likely to grow from $160 billion in 2017 to $215 billion by 2020. This is primarily driven by the introduction of the Goods and Service Tax, growth in manufacturing, emergence of new industrial growth centres and increase in government investments in key infrastructure among others.

“Estimates put the market size of the Bengal logistics sector at $20 billion by 2020,” the report said.

Mitra said the upcoming deep sea port in Tajpur will complement the operations at Haldia and Calcutta port where depth is a concern to bring in large vessels.

KPMG said the state government should now focus on strengthening coordination between industry, infrastructure and logistics initiative in the state.