Gearing up to tap business opportunities that the multi-modal international hub at Nagpur (Mihan) will throw open in the near future, Vidarbha’s first privately operated inland container depot (ICD) is coming up in Wardha. World Window Wardha Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the a Delhi-based logistics company WW Group is setting up the depot in 100-acre land.

“We have received the inter-ministerial committee approval for the Wardha ICD. The first phase providing container and cargo handling facilities for domestic sector will be operational by the month-end,” Anil Bellurkar, terminal manager of the ICD, said while speaking to TOI on Wednesday.

The WW Group is already running a large ICD successfully at Loni near Delhi. The Loni unit is a joint venture with the Central Warehousing Corporation of India and it is being expanded to 300 acres. “The Wardha facility will be wholly owned by the group company and follow the same standards adopted at Loni,” said Bellurkar.
The ICD will use the railway siding of the Lloyds Steel, which will be its major client. “Besides that we are looking at Butibori and major business centres of Vidarbha like Yavatmal, Akola, Amravati and Hinganghat as catchment area. There is vast potential in agriculture commodities and products from factories like Raymonds in Yavatmal and Indo Rama from Butibori,” he added. The Wardha ICD will be developed in three phases over the next three years. In the first phase meant for domestic containers, facilities for rail side handling, cargo storage will be developed in 47 acres.

Development of second phase in 20 acres will start in October and will see building of warehouses for exports, imports and paved areas for container handling and storage. It will be completed in February next year.

In the third phase, additional warehousing space along with specialised logistic park will be created. Once fully developed in 100 acres of land, it will have paved area of one lakh sq metres and warehousing space of more than 5 lakh sq ft. “Once Mihan with its world-class infrastructure takes shape and business pours in, we will have a major role to play as distribution agents in domestic as well as overseas sector,” the ICD executive added.