Infrastructure &
Terminal Advisory.
India is investing heavily in ports, logistics hubs, and maritime infrastructure to support future trade growth. We help investors, developers, port authorities, and terminal operators plan, evaluate, and deliver infrastructure projects with confidence. From feasibility studies and investment advisory to terminal planning, operational strategy, and sustainability initiatives, we provide practical guidance for long-term success in a rapidly evolving logistics landscape.
Port Management & Port Solutions
India’s port landscape is moving from utility-style port administration to commercially governed port authority management. With the Major Port Authorities Act 2021, One Nation One Port Process, green port guidelines, sustainability measurement, PPP concessions, and digital port systems, port authorities and terminal operators now require sharper operational, commercial, governance, and technology strategies. We support port authorities, terminal operators, concessionaires, and port service providers in building stronger, more competitive port operations.
Port Strategy, Governance & Operations Advisory
Port Operations Performance Review
Assessing vessel turnaround, berth occupancy, crane productivity, gate throughput, and yard utilisation against Indian and international benchmarks to identify bottlenecks.
Port Governance Advisory
Advising port authority boards on governance frameworks, delegation of authority, committee structures, tariff processes, and commercial decision protocols.
Concession Management Strategy
Supporting private terminal operators with concession obligations, MCA renegotiation, authority relationships, extension strategy, and new terminal bid positioning.
Commercial Revenue Optimisation
Reviewing tariff structure, ancillary service revenue, customer mix, berth-day productivity, and cargo competitiveness to increase sustainable port revenue.
Green Port & GPPI Advisory
Assessing sustainability posture against Harit Sagar and GPPI frameworks, developing phased improvement plans, and advising on green financing structures.
Port Digitalisation Advisory
Advising on Port Community Systems, National Logistics Portal integration, digital twins, IoT, automation, and technology investments that improve throughput.
Port Master Planning Support
Ensuring port master plans include demand analysis, competitive positioning, commercial strategy, and concession planning beyond engineering-led infrastructure design.
What This Means For You
Port authorities and terminal operators that work with us manage commercial, governance, sustainability, and operational obligations with the sector-specific depth maritime infrastructure requires — not generic management advisory that misses the variables determining competitive position in India’s evolving port landscape.
ICD / CFS / PFT Setup & Optimisation
India’s inland container infrastructure is entering a new phase shaped by CBIC approval rules, DFC connectivity, Direct Port Delivery, Direct Port Entry, and DFCCIL’s Gati Shakti Cargo Terminal policy. We support promoters, investors, ICD operators, CFS businesses, and PFT developers with feasibility, approval, operational design, technology, customs notification, and performance improvement advisory grounded in real freight market viability.
Infrastructure Setup & Optimisation Advisory
ICD/CFS/PFT Feasibility & Site Assessment
Cargo catchment analysis, competitive facility mapping, DFC connectivity evaluation, policy compliance verification, and financial modelling under realistic throughput scenarios.
IMC Application & Approval Support
Preparing CBIC Inter-Ministerial Committee applications, including project rationale, technology plan, target market description, and logistics cost reduction case.
GCT & PFT Development Advisory
Advising on DFCCIL Gati Shakti Cargo Terminal applications, eligibility, land requirements, access charges, infrastructure planning, and commercial viability.
CBIC Customs Notification & Bonding
Managing customs bonding applications, notified area designation, CBIC coordination, and facility scope conditions required for commercial operations.
Operational Design & Technology
Recommending yard layouts, handling equipment, gate automation, weighbridge systems, CCTV, ICEGATE integration, container tracking, and inventory systems.
Existing Facility Performance Improvement
Diagnosing throughput decline, DPD/DPE impact, DFC competition, revenue risk, and redesigning service mix, pricing, and infrastructure investment strategy.
Transaction Advisory for Acquisitions
Commercial and operational due diligence covering CBIC licence status, throughput trends, customer contract quality, equipment condition, and DFC access risk.
What This Means For You
ICD, CFS, and PFT investments established or improved with our support are positioned within the regulatory and freight market reality that determines long-term viability — with CBIC approvals correctly structured, DFC connectivity properly assessed, and throughput assumptions grounded in committed demand rather than catchment area projections.
Inland Logistics Infrastructure
India’s inland logistics infrastructure is being reorganised around MMLPs, Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals, inland waterways, DFC-linked warehousing corridors, and integrated freight hubs. We advise developers, investors, and logistics operators on identifying viable inland infrastructure opportunities, designing commercial hub models, and distinguishing committed infrastructure from optimistic policy timelines.
HUB
Inland Infrastructure Advisory Services
MMLP Site & Opportunity Assessment
Evaluating MMLP locations against freight catchment, DFC and railway connectivity, road access, incentives, competing infrastructure, and commercial viability timelines.
Inland Logistics Hub Design
Advising on service mix, facility layout, handling equipment, technology infrastructure, and customer proposition for integrated inland logistics hubs.
Inland Waterway Integration
Assessing the commercial case for inland waterway transport, terminal and jetty requirements, cargo suitability, and government incentive schemes.
PM Gati Shakti Advisory
Helping investors understand which infrastructure investments are committed, planned, or aspirational so decisions are calibrated to realistic timelines.
Warehousing Cluster Development
Advising on location, specification, and phasing of Grade-A warehousing in DFC-proximate locations, MMLP catchments, and manufacturing hinterlands.
State Incentive Support
Identifying logistics park subsidies, land support, power tariff concessions, SGST reimbursement programmes, and state incentives for infrastructure development.
What This Means For You
Inland logistics infrastructure investments made with our support are calibrated to the freight network being built — distinguishing committed government infrastructure from planned infrastructure, and grounding private investment decisions in commercially available freight demand now.
Capacity Planning & Utilisation
Capacity planning errors in logistics infrastructure carry consequences that compound over time in both directions. Infrastructure built with overstated demand assumptions generates inadequate returns on capital and creates competitive disadvantage — the operator is burdened with fixed costs that cannot be reduced and tariffs that cannot compete. Infrastructure built with understated demand assumptions creates throughput bottlenecks that generate customer dissatisfaction, shipping line defection, and revenue loss that is difficult to recover once alternative facilities capture the diverted cargo.
The challenge in India is that both types of error are common. Port capacity expansion plans frequently rely on regional traffic growth projections that do not adequately account for competing port development or shifts in carrier alliance service networks. ICD and CFS capacity plans built before the DFC era are now materially mispriced relative to the actual demand shift that DFC connectivity is creating. Inland warehousing capacity planned against a pre-GST supply chain footprint may be generating the wrong mix of rack space versus floor space, the wrong clear height, and the wrong location relative to a customer base that has reorganised its distribution network since the GST transition. Capacity planning done correctly requires integrating freight market intelligence, competitive infrastructure mapping, customer demand analysis, and operational efficiency benchmarking into a single analytical framework — and then applying it honestly rather than optimistically.
Analysis
Assessment
Benchmarking
Planning
Validation
Capacity Planning Advisory Services
Port and Terminal Capacity Assessment
Evaluating the effective capacity of an existing port or terminal against its theoretical design capacity, identifying the operational, equipment, and process constraints that create the gap, and quantifying the throughput improvement available through operational change versus the throughput increase that requires physical infrastructure investment.
Freight Demand Forecasting
Building cargo demand projections from the bottom up — trade lane by trade lane, customer by customer, commodity by commodity — using a combination of shipper surveys, shipping line service plans, and macroeconomic trend analysis that produces a demand range rather than a point estimate.
ICD and CFS Capacity Planning
Assessing the throughput capacity of existing and planned inland container facilities against the demand available in their catchment area, accounting for DPD/DPE penetration, DFC diversion risk, and competing facility development in the relevant zone.
Warehousing Capacity and Specification Review
Auditing existing warehouse assets for specification adequacy — clear height, floor loading, dock door ratio, power supply, automation readiness — against current and prospective tenant requirements; and advising on the upgrade investments that improve utilisation and justify rental improvement.
Utilisation Improvement Programmes
For logistics infrastructure assets operating below design capacity, diagnosing the commercial, operational, and pricing factors driving underutilisation and designing the improvement plan — customer targeting, service enhancement, pricing recalibration, and infrastructure upgrade — that moves utilisation toward commercial viability.
Capex Prioritisation Advisory
Advising port authorities, terminal operators, and infrastructure developers on the sequencing and sizing of capital expenditure, ensuring that infrastructure investment is triggered by committed demand rather than projected demand and that capex phases align with the commercial certainty available at each decision point.
Infrastructure Investment Decision Framework
Current Demand
- Existing cargo volume
- Customer commitments
- Current utilisation
Forecast Demand
- Trade lane shifts
- Carrier service changes
- Commodity growth range
Capacity Gap
- Operational constraints
- Equipment limits
- Infrastructure bottlenecks
Investment Decision
- Optimise first
- Upgrade selectively
- Expand when committed
What This Means For You
Capacity decisions made with our support are grounded in committed demand rather than projected demand — so infrastructure investment is sized for the cargo that will move through it rather than the cargo that a model predicts, and utilisation from day one reflects commercial reality rather than optimistic assumption.
Brownfield & Greenfield Projects
India’s logistics infrastructure pipeline contains both project types in significant quantity — and they are fundamentally different challenges. Greenfield projects offer the freedom to design correctly from the outset but carry the full weight of land acquisition risk, environmental clearance timelines, utility provisioning, and the long lead time before first revenue. Vadhavan Port, now under construction approximately 150 km north of Mumbai at an estimated cost of Rs 76,220 crore with a target capacity of 23-24 million TEUs annually, is India’s defining greenfield infrastructure project of this decade. MSC’s Terminal Investment Limited has committed Rs 20,000 crore — approximately 25-30% of total project cost — to develop Vadhavan and its ecosystem, while Maharashtra has approved a 105 km freight corridor linking the port to the Samruddhi Expressway. These details illustrate both the scale of what greenfield development requires and the complexity of managing it well.
At the other end of the scale, private investors are evaluating brownfield ICD acquisitions, CFS rationalisation, and brownfield PFT conversion under the GCT policy — where the challenge is not greenfield development complexity but the specific risks of acquiring assets with embedded operational, commercial, and regulatory histories that must be correctly understood before pricing is set. India’s shipbuilding programme — 5 greenfield and 3 brownfield shipyard facilities currently in development under the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 — adds another dimension. We advise across both project types with the specific expertise that each requires: for greenfield projects, the front-end advisory that prevents costly design and commercial errors before they are embedded in physical infrastructure; for brownfield projects, the operational and commercial due diligence that correctly values what has been built and identifies what must change for the asset to perform.
Greenfield
New project planning, regulatory readiness, development structure, financing, and demand-led infrastructure design.
Decision
Hub
Brownfield
Asset diligence, performance review, conversion advisory, expansion planning, and turnaround strategy.
Pre-feasibility and Feasibility Study
Market demand assessment, site evaluation, technology and infrastructure specification, financial modelling under development and operational scenarios, and the honest identification of risks that must be managed before commitment — including land acquisition complexity, environmental clearance timeline, and competing facility development.
Development Structure Advisory
Advising on the optimal development vehicle — SPV, PPP concession, Build-Operate-Transfer, JV with port authority — and the governance and financing structure that supports the development timeline without creating unnecessary risk for the private investor.
Regulatory Clearance Roadmap
Identifying and sequencing all central and state regulatory approvals required for the specific project — environmental clearance, coastal regulation zone permissions, CBIC notification, state industrial clearances, connectivity agreements — and managing the stakeholder engagement required to advance them in parallel.
Project Financing Advisory
Advising on the capital structure, lender information memorandum preparation, access to NaBFID and IIFCL project finance, and the pre-leasing or anchor customer commitment strategy that improves project bankability and reduces the equity burden on developers.
Brownfield Operational and Commercial Due Diligence
Assessing the actual performance of an existing logistics infrastructure asset against its reported performance — throughput trajectory, tariff sustainability, customer concentration, equipment condition, regulatory compliance status, and the capital expenditure required to maintain or improve performance under new ownership.
Brownfield PFT Conversion Advisory
For private siding owners and existing terminal operators evaluating migration to GCT under the DFCCIL policy, advising on the eligibility assessment, conversion application, infrastructure upgrade requirements, and commercial model changes required to access DFC services under the new framework.
Brownfield Expansion and Upgrade Planning
Advising on the sequencing, specification, and financing of capacity and capability upgrades at existing logistics infrastructure assets, ensuring that expansion investment is triggered by commercial demand and sized to deliver the return on incremental capital that the asset’s existing financial profile supports.
Brownfield Turnaround Advisory
For logistics infrastructure assets underperforming against their commercial potential, diagnosing the specific operational, commercial, and governance factors driving underperformance and designing the structured improvement programme that recovers throughput, revenue, and margin to viable levels.
Project Evaluation Framework
Commercial Viability
- Cargo demand
- Customer commitments
- Revenue assumptions
Regulatory Readiness
- Approvals
- Compliance
- Permissions
Infrastructure Readiness
- Existing assets
- Utility support
- Connectivity
Financial Return
- Capex
- ROI
- Payback
What This Means For You
Greenfield projects are designed with commercial demand and regulatory reality built in from the earliest planning stage — avoiding the costly corrections that emerge when infrastructure is built for a cargo volume that was modelled rather than committed. Brownfield investments are priced and structured with a complete understanding of what is actually there — not what the seller’s information memorandum describes.