This is how GST will make Nagpur a logistics hub

Mumbai: Nagpur, the City of Oranges, will soon completely overhaul India's transportation system as country gears up for a nationwide indirect tax regime named as Goods and Services Tax. India has announced it is implementing the 'One Nation One Tax' regime from July 1.

Nagpur that has a population of 2.4 million people stays at crossroads of India's major, busy rail and road highways a central point that equally divides country into east to west and north to south corridors, according to a report in Bloomberg.

The city is also famous for its tiger sanctuaries, vast stretches of forest reserves and a very high summer-time temperature when mercury rises up to 48°C. Of late, Nagpur has witnessed a barrage of investments from retailers and warehouse companies.

The Bloomberg report adds big players in India's shipping industry like Container Corporation of India, Mahindra Logistics, and Transport Corporation of India have already started works for setting up warehouses in Nagpur.

Some foreign major logistics players have also evinced interest in establishing store rooms in the city. The US headquartered Deere & Co is one of the overseas companies that has indicated it will set up a warehouse in Nagpur.

"The revolution has started," the report quoted Manoj Muti, a supervisor at a warehouse in the city that stores goods of Patanjali Ayurved as saying. Patanjali Ayurveda endorsed by yoga guru Baba Ramdev is country's fastest growing consumer goods company that makes its products based on centuries old medical cure method.

"While the new GST won't solve many structural problems of India's transport network, it could trim logistics costs of companies producing non-bulk goods by as much as 20 percent, according to an estimate by Crisil, Mumbai-based unit of S&P Global Inc," the report said.