Balmer Lawrie pumps Rs 50 cr in cold chain infra

Miniratna PSU Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd has said it is investing Rs 50 crore for construction of two cold chain warehouses to tap the growing demand for temperature controlled warehousing facilities.
Of the Rs 50 crore, the PSU would be pumping some Rs 33-34 crore from internal accruals as it has sufficient free cash, company Chairman and Managing Director Prabal Basu said.
The company was constructing two temperature controlled warehouses - one at Delhi NCR and the other at Patalganga, Maharashtra, Balmer Lawrie director (services) K Swaminathan told PTI.
This project has also been approved for subsidy recently by the government which is promoting such projects to reduce wastage of perishable items by 10 per cent.

"The NCR cold warehouse will be opened in May and by September, Patalganga will be operational. The project will focus on vegetables and fruits. Patalganga will be mainly act as sourcing hub and NCR as distribution centre," he said.
The company also has one operational warehouse at Hyderabad. The three warehouses would support modern retail, restaurants and food & beverage sector.

Each of the cold chain warehouses would have about 3800 tonne storing capacity. The company will also procure 18 air-conditioned vehicles for its own logistics.
With these three warehouses, Balmer Lawrie completes first phase of the cold chain infrastructure project.

"Once these gets stabilised, another three temperature controlled warehouse will be planned with its presence in the eastern region," Basu said.