Allcargo Terminals Ltd (ATL), a part of the Allcargo Group, plans to open its second container freight station (CFS) in Chennai. This is part of the company’s ₹550 crore expansion plan to increase capacity at its CFSs and new projects across the country.
The new CFS in Chennai will be closer to the Kattupalli-Ennore port in North Chennai, which now handles almost 50 per cent of the container volumes in the city, said R Suresh Kumar, Managing Director, Allcargo Terminals Ltd. The present facility near Chennai port has an annual capacity to handle 1 lakh TEUs, he added.
“In Chennai, we are looking at creating a facility either in partnership or on our own. We are in the final stages of negotiation for that and it should happen in the next quarter. We will have the land and other things finalised. Then we should take about six-nine months to start phase one of the project,” he said.
The investment on the Chennai project will be out of the total ₹550 crore that company plans to spend across India in the next three years, he said. Details are being worked out for the Chennai project, he added.
A CFS is an extension of the port and a bonded area. The operator is the custodian of the goods on behalf of the Customs for the period in which the cargo stays at the facility.
Nearly 35 per cent of the overall port volumes (boxes) end up coming into the CFS, he said.
ATL currently operates at Nhava Sheva-JNPT (two), Mundra (two), Chennai (one), and Kolkata (one), and an Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Dadri in Haryana, with a total capacity of 8.5 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). “We are located in ports which handle close to 80 per cent of India’s export trade,” he said.
Kumar said four expansion plans, including a new CFS at Chennai, to add capacities at various CFSs and ICDs across India are being taken up.
Out of the ₹550 crore investment in the expansion plan in the next three years, nearly ₹150 crore has already been spent. These expansions will increase the capacity to 13 lakh TEUs from 8.5 million TEUs. ATL has about 250 acres of land – directly, owned, leased or in partnership, he said.
The company is expanding its facility at JNPT. At Mundra, it has 60 acres of land outside the Adani SEZ where a CFS will be constructed in the next one year. The fourth is a greenfield ICD at Farukhnagar in NCR, which is the gateway to North India. The company is finalising acquisition of about 60 acres of land with rail connectivity for the project, which will have an annual capacity of 1,20,000 TEUs, he said.
On the industry, Kumar said the Indian ports and shipping sector is undergoing a transformative phase, driven by rising investments, expanding cargo volumes, strong policy support, and various initiatives. Key government programmes like Sagarmala, which covers over 574 projects worth over ₹6 lakh crore, and the shipbuilding financial assistance policy extended to March 2026 are fostering capacity expansion and technological advancement, including green fuel propulsion systems.
The sector is expected to add 500 million to 550 million tonnes per annum of capacity between FY23 and FY28, led by growth in coal, containerised cargo, and petroleum. All these factors will help the industry, and in turn ATL, said Kumar.
