Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd has decided to set up a new container freight station and a temperature controlled warehouse for fruits and vegetables.

Prabal Basu, Chairman and Managing Director, told BusinessLine that independent feasibility studies were being undertaken for the two proposed projects. Balmer Lawrie is a ₹2,740-crore diversified public sector company.

For the proposed CFS location, the company was looking at two minor ports – one at Dhamra in Odisha and the other one at Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu. “Based on the feasibility report, we would finalise the location,” Basu said. A consultancy firm has been assigned to prepare the report within the next three months, he added.

The proposed CFS will have the capacity to handle 3,000 containers per month. Balmer Lawrie already has three CFS in Mumbai (Nhava Sheva), Chennai and Kolkata. “The feasibility report would primarily assess and confirm whether any of the two ports can sustainably generate business worth of 36,000 containers a year,” he explained.

The relatively lower land cost at these two ports with container terminals was the primary rationale behind short listing of the possible site location.

He also said that for the proposed weather controlled warehouse, the company is in the process of selecting consultancy firm for doing the project due diligence.

“It would located in West Bengal,” he said. It would have a capacity of 3,000 pallets and the likely investment would be around ₹25 crore. It would cater to dairy, ice cream, fruits, vegetables sectors as well as meat importers or exporters.

Meanwhile, he said the first temperature controlled warehouse of the company in Hyderabad would be ready in April. Basu said the company’s two other proposed warehouses in Delhi and Mumbai would be commissioned in the next one year.