COVERSTORY1 4 CARGOTALK A U G U S T 2 0 1 5

Rawat says, “As the Indian economygrows over the medium term, therewill be a huge movement of cargonecessitating the strengthening of intermodal transport links and augmenting transport capacity.Moreover, there is a higher chanceof inviting FDI into freight villagesfrom countries like Germany, which are leaders in logistics. Also, the concept of freight villagescan be incorporated into freight corridors (East & West) proposed for the Indian Railways. Finally, the changes recommended in the Land Acquisition Act will make it easier to acquire land for this purpose.”

The Challenges Despite the important role of

freight villages in generating syner-gies, promoting regional intermodaltransportation and urban distribution,there are challenges besetting theirimplementation. The biggest, per-haps, would be the lack of coordina-tion and cooperation between theCentral and State regulators.

Karthi Baskar, DeputyManaging Director, Kintetsu World Express (India) explains,“Establishing freight villages wouldentail the risk of over-supply, sincemany players would want to open logistics centres within their jurisdictions.”

Horizontal cooperation infreight and logistics typically pays little attention to the impedi-ments towards closer relationships between firms.

Shreyas Malkan, Founder & CEO, Passionforlogistics.comopines, “It is important to reduce carbon footprints by eliminating interstate check posts and toll points in order to cut down trans-portation costs by nearly 30 per cent.If this is acted upon, then the logistics

industry would be willing to supportefforts to set up a freight village.”

Importance of a StrategicLocation

A strategic location is importantfor a freight village, since it incorporates various functions of a logistics centre.

Stressing on the point,Pradeep Panicker, ChiefCommercial Officer, DIAL says, “Anair freight village needs to be located at or very near the airport. It would primarily act as a consolida-tion point for air cargo, coming from various facilities and hubs, to be exported to different destinations worldwide.”

Nazir Ansari, Senior VP –SCM, Leeway Logistics says, “A typical freight village should be at or near the crossroads of twoor more major highways and rail connection points. It should be well integrated within the facility

and it should have extensive intermodal functionality. Also, itshould also be located close to a major metropolitan area that wouldserve as a market.”

Investment andOwnership

In most countries, freight villages are owned by the private sector. These villages are

developed by large-scale operatorsand ASSOCHAM has proposed similar mode of ownership.

Manish Puri, ManagingDirector, India Infrastructure &Logistics, highlights, “Since commonfacilities (specifically land) are needed in freight villages, the bestsolution would be to create a mix of public and private players. The Government should ideally remain responsible for providing the land and base infrastructure such

as roads and power, and then let private developers build various facilities.”

Should a freight village be integrated ornon-integrated?

An integrated freight villagewould cater to the needs of air, rail,inland waterways and coastal shipping. Experts believe that Indianeeds a combination of integratedand non-integrated freight villages,

Freight villages can be a part of freight corridors

DS RawatSecretary GeneralASSOCHAM

Karthi BaskarDeputy Managing DirectorKintetsu World Express (India)

Pradeep PanickerChief Commercial Officer (Aero)DIAL

Shreyas MalkanFounder & CEOPassionforlogistics.com

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