India's first multi-modal logistics park at Mappedu near Chennai, conceived 12 years ago, will take center stage when Reliance Industries begins construction in June, as reported by several sources. In 2022, the bid for the Rs 14.24 billion project on 184.27 hectares of land in Tiruvallur district was won by the company, surpassing the Adani Group.

The project aims to enable efficient, cost-effective, value-added logistics services including freight aggregation and disaggregation, distribution, intermodal transfer, sorting, packaging and repacking. However, it initially faced setbacks due to the private sector's lack of interest in connectivity issues.

In 2022, Reliance was awarded the contract by the Center, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone on May 26, 2022. Nevertheless, several issues, such as access to local villages, caused delays in the start of construction. They said all these issues have now been resolved and construction will begin in June.

In October 2021, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, National Highways Logistics Management Limited and the Chennai Port Trust.

The park is 52 km from Chennai Port, 80 km from Ennore Port and 87 km from Kattupalli Port. It is poised to become a crucial hub for logistics in the southern region, and is expected to handle approximately 7.17 million tonnes (mt) of freight over a 45-year period.

According to a pre-feasibility report, the project will also serve as secondary market clusters in Ranipet, Ambur, Tirupur and Bengaluru, housing industries such as leather, heavy machinery components, automobiles, cement, sugar and chemicals.

Moreover, the project is strategically located near automotive and electronics manufacturing clusters on the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam industrial belt and in close proximity to the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road.