CM Pinarayi Vijayan to inaugurate work of Adani Logistics Park in Kochi

KOCHI: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the groundbreaking ceremony for the Adani Logistics Park in Kalamassery on Saturday. The Adani Group will invest around Rs 600 crore to develop the park on a 70-acre site near the HMT industrial area. Senior officials of the group, including Ashwani Gupta, CEO of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, Pankaj Bhardwaj, business head of Adani Agri Logistics Ltd, and Pradeep Jayaraman, CEO of Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd, will attend the function. All approvals have been cleared, including long-pending concerns of residents over road access, Industries Minister P Rajeeve said. The project can generate direct employment to at least 1,000 people, besides many more indirect jobs, he said. Officials said Kochis connectivity and proximity to Cochin Port and Vizhinjam makes it attractive for logistics investments. The project site has a controversial past. HMT sold the land to Blue Star Realtors, a subsidiary of real estate developer Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) in 2004-05 for an IT project. The deal ran into rough weather after HDIL slipped into bankruptcy. In December 2018, Adani Group acquired Blue Star Realtors.