Welspun One to invest Rs700 cr to develop logistics hub in JN Port SEZ

Welspun One, the alternative investment arm of the Welspun Group, on Wednesday announced plans to invest Rs700 crore to develop a logistics hub with 1.2-million sq ft warehousing space in Navi Mumbai.

The company has entered into a strategic partnership with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) to develop an industrial and logistics hub spread across 55 acres within the JNPA Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Navi Mumbai.

Welspun One and JNPA will jointly develop the project, which involves investment in both land acquisition and the cost of construction.

Welspun One proposes to finance the project through a mix of debt and equity.

The company’s alternative investment fund has a corpus of Rs2,000 crore, part of which was used in its previous investment.

Last month Welspun One invested in land in Thane, near Mumbai for a mixed use logistics hub. Construction work on the 1 million sq ft last mile warehousing facility is currently progressing.

The investment in the JNPA-SEZ positions Welspun One in strategic proximity with the JNPA Port, which handles a third of India's total containerised cargo volume.

The proposed logistic hub is also well-connected to national highways, railways, and airports. Besides it will benefit from tax exemptions, zero GST, single-window clearances, and flexibility in operations.

Welspun One is expanding warehousing capacity in and around Mumbai to meet the increasing requirement of cargo space. 

The company is targeting the creation of a total 16-18 million sq ft of warehousing space, spread over Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, over the next 4-5 years.

The company estimates an overall investments in excess of Rs8,000 crore over the 5-year period.

Welspun One so far committed creation of 6.5 million sq ft of warehousing space of which, nearly half of which has already been leased out to companies like Delhivery, Flipkart, FM Logistics, Tata Croma, Ecom Express amongst others.