GOVT ENTITY EXPECTS 1,500 CR IN INVESTMENTS
Mumbai: State-owned Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) plans to monetise and modernise its warehouses across India under a plan that seeks to garner about 1,500 crore in investments from prospective partners.
The entity, under the administrative control of the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, is into warehousing, logistics management and allied activities, and its monetisation exercise involves development of warehousing facilities in 80 key locations through public-private partnership (PPP). The facilities, under the design build finance operate and transfer (DBFOT) model, will be given to the concessionaires for 45 years.
“We are monetising 54 sites across the country in the first stage and will add more than 20 to the pipeline in the next stage. We expect the entire process to bring in investments worth over 1,500 crore that will help boost operational efficiencies, technology, innovation, and comp- lete digitisation,” Amit Kumar Singh, MD, CWC, told ET.
CWC along with advisor Knight Frank India has invited bids for this nation-wide warehousing monetisation programme and the entire
process is expected to be completed by December end. Under this plan, CWC will provide encumbrance free sites spread over 200 acres that would require no change of land use and clear title. These pre-appro- ved warehousing sites are spread over 46 acres in tier-I cities, around 72 acres in tier-II cities and 81 acres in tier-III towns.
The bidders are expected to have their financial year 2022-23 net- worth of not less than 50% of the cu- mulative estimated project cost of all the sites that the entity is bidding for. In case the bidder is an alternative investment fund (AIF) or a foreign investment fund (FIF), it is expected to have a minimum available capital for investment at close 2022- 23 of two times the cumulative estimated project cost of all the sites that the bidder is bidding for.
Of the total sites, 21 sites are spread over five acres each, seven sites are spread over three-five acres each and while some sites are less than three acres each.
93021-04463