The state government has designated 300 acres of privately held land for the development of industry in relation to the Vizhinjam International Port. The land has been designated through KINFRA and is dispersed among five areas within a 20-kilometer radius of the port. The government intends to purchase the property by providing compensation, and talks with the landowners are anticipated to start shortly.

The government will now have to pay a high price for the land, as this purchase action takes place almost ten years after the port’s construction started. The Revenue Department has already begun site inspections and the process of determining the land value in response to KINFRA’s recommendation to buy 50 acres in the first phase.

Additionally, the government has declared its intention to create a logistics corridor along the Vizhinjam to Kazhakkoottam route. But because of the scarcity of land, a number of businesses that had expressed interest in establishing industrial facilities in the area withdrew. Despite being created a year ago, the state’s draft logistics policy has not yet received final approval.

The shipping and logistics firm Sharaf Group made a ₹5,000 crore investment proposal in Vizhinjam during the Department of Industries’ Global Investors Meet in Kochi this January. Additionally, the group indicated that it would be willing to buy the 50 acres needed for the project’s initial phase. However, the Industries Department was unable to locate appropriate land for purchase. Due to a lack of available land, some other corporations’ plans to build logistics parks also came to a standstill.

The government has suggested extra capital support of up to ₹7 million for logistics parks in order to promote logistics infrastructure. According to the new logistics policy, this sum should be given in addition to the ₹2 crore capital incentive that the industrial policy now offers to MSMEs.

A project will be categorized as a logistics park under the proposed framework if its total area is 10 acres or more, and as a mini-logistics park if its total area is five acres. The draft proposes a maximum capital reward of ₹3 crore for the latteer. Parks can be constructed using a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model on government-acquired land or on private property. Next month, the draft logistics policy should be made public.