Indian Railways’ unit Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) have agreed to collaborate and establish Multimodal Logistics Parks across India under NHAI’s Bharatmala Pariyojana.
RVNL’s role in this partnership will entail the design, planning, implementation and commissioning of railway connectivity to the MMLPs to come up all over the country. NHAI subsidiary National Highways Logistics Management Limited (NHLML), responsible for the operation of the MMLPs, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RVNL for the purpose.
Individual MoUs and agreements will be inked for each of the 35 MMLPs set to be established across India under the project.
NHAI’s Bharatmala Pariiyojana Phase 1
Phase 1 of the Bharatmala Pariyojana was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2017. The massive infrastructure project will cover 24,800 kilometres of highways and is likely to cost more than 7 lakh crores according to recent estimates. The industry forecast for completion of the project is by 2026 after delays due to various reasons.
As part of the project, 35 Multimodal Logistics Parks will be established across India. The MMLPs are expected to be developed as Public Private Partnership (PPP) ventures and will be set up under the Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) model.
List of Multimodal Logistics Parks Planned under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase 1
| Nagpur | Delhi-NCR | Visakhapatnam | North Punjab |
| Chennai | North Gujarat | Bhopal | Vijayawada |
| Bangalore | Jaipur | Sundargarh | Patna |
| Indore | Kolkata | Bhatinda | Valsad |
| Mumbai | Ambala | Solan | Guwahati |
| Hyderabad | Jagatsinghpur | Rajkot | |
| Coimbatore | Nashik | Raipur | |
| Pune | Kota | Jammu | |
| Surat | Panaji | Kandla | |
| Sangrur | Hisar | Cochin |