Gateway Distri in rail terminal expansion

Gateway Distriparks, the Mumbai-based logistics company, is looking to set up rail terminals in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, a senior official of the company said.

Prem Kishan Gupta, deputy chairman & managing director, Gateway Distriparks, said at a conference call that the company currently has rail terminals at Garhi Harsaru (near Delhi), Sanewal (Ludhiana) and Kalamboli (Panvel).

“We are looking build rail terminals in Chennai and Gujarat. While we are yet to finalise an exact location in Chennai, we are planning inland terminals for our domestic and Exim operations in Gujarat,” Gupta said.

He said Gateway will not look at building rail terminals in the port areas in Gujarat, as it already has operations at Mundra Port and Pipavav Port.

Currently, the company is using the Indian Railways’ terminals for its operations in the state.  He said that the funding for the expansion will be made from the Rs 300 crore invested by the Blackstone Group in the company last year.

“We will use a part of those funds for these terminals and also for the operations of our Garhi, Sanewal and Kalamboli terminals,” Gupta said.

Gateway Distriparks is also planning to expand Snowman Frozen Foods Ltd, its cold chain business.  “We plan expand our cold chain business. We plan to increase our pallet capacity to 19,000 from the current 10,000 in Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai,” Gopinath Pillai, chairman, Gateway Distriparks, said.

“We have Rs 20 crore cash reserves from Snowman and the total capex would be less than Rs 20 crore,” Pillai said. He said any additional capex requirement will be met from the investment made by International Finance Corporation earlier.

He said the company is also planning to start warehousing facilities, though nothing has been finalised as yet.