Global online retailing major Amazon today announced fresh investments in the state of Telangana with the opening of a Fulfilment Centre (FC), spread over 280,000 square feet near Kottur, in Mahabubnagar district, on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The FC will be operational from May 2015. This is the largest investment in infrastructure in any single state, to date, by Amazon in India. The FC will allow Amazon.in to offer its Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service to thousands of small and medium businesses in the state and empower them to gain access to and service customers across the country at significantly low operating costs. It will also enable faster and quicker delivery of products to amazon.in customers in the region.
Photo: Dave Clark, Senior Vice President, Amazon, along with KT Rama Rao, IT Minister and Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary, Telangana
With the opening of the new FC in Telangana, Amazon will have 11 FC’s operational across nine states in India covering a total of over one million square feet space with a storage capacity of over 2.5 million cubic feet.
Welcoming the investments in the state, the Chief Minister, Sri. K. Chandrashekar Rao said, “We are very excited that Amazon has decided to invest their biggest Warehouse in Telangana. We have passed the TS iPass bill in our Assembly that ensures self certification and deemed approval of all clearances within 3 weeks of application for any Mega Project. For Amazon, we have given all clearances in 11 days, well within the guaranteed time. We are making all efforts to make Telangana an investor friendly state.”
ASSPL also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Telangana State Government to train thousands of sellers across the state in ecommerce and take advantage of the digital economy. Under the MOU, Amazon India will offer trainings to SMEs through seminars, workshops, video aids and ready reckoners on how to list & manage inventory for an ecommerce business.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Telangana Chief Secretary Sri Rajiv Sharma and IT Minister Sri KT Rama Rao.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Dave Clark, Senior Vice President Worldwide Operations and Customer Service at Amazon said, “Telangana has been home to our IT operations in India. It is the ease of doing business in the state, thanks to the progressive state government, that has encouraged us to make further significant investments in the state. The World-class fulfillment infrastructure and customer service will allow Amazon to do the heavy lifting for the thousands of small & medium sellers from the state and help them grow profitably.”
The IT Minister, Sri. K. T. Rama Rao, commenting on the announcement said, “Hyderabad, being centrally located has a geographical advantage, making it an ideal logistics hub. The fact that Amazon is setting up their largest warehouse here is a testimony to that. We believe that the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service plays a very critical role in the growth of the SMEs in the state. It amplifies their reach at very low operating costs and gives them a level playing field with the big sellers. We hope to see a boost in local employment and entrepreneurship as the demand for ancillary industries such as packaging, transportation, logistics, and hospitality will grow. We also want more and more sellers across the state to adopt the tools of the new age economy and the trainings that Amazon will provide will be good start to that.”
Mr. Amit Agarwal, VP and Country Manager, Amazon India added “We are committed to and look forward to partnering with the state government in transforming the lives of small and medium businesses across the state by giving them access to tools and technology that will empower their growth in the digital economy. Likewise the citizens of Telangana can look forward to getting a quick, easy and convenient access to products from India’s largest selection of over 2.1 crore products on Amazon.in.”