There is tremendous potential of timber business in the area. Today most of the imported timber is landing in Kandla port. Many timber traders / manufacturers source their timber from Kandla port and bring it to Maharashtra.

If timber estate is established near the Mumbai port, these traders would certainly prefer to get their timber processed near the port as it would mean huge savings in transportcosts.

Exports will shoot up once the timber can be processed in enough quantities near the port. Such processes at present are doneatdistant places like Rajasthan, where furniture is made from the imported timber. Traders from Jodhpur and Jaipur today are one of the biggest exporters offurniture.

At present, because of lack of necessary facility around Mumbai, many traders are importing plywood and sawn wood from foreign countries like Myanmar, China, Malaysia, Ghana etc. Once the proposed estate is setup here, plywood can be manufactured here locally. Similarly, value addition work at timber estate will make the proposal very viable.

Since the major source of supply of raw material is imported timber and after manufacturing, the goods are again exported. If the manufacturing units are located in the proposed timber estate, it is expected that the state of Maharashtra would be able of attract such units in large numbers as this would mean huge savings in terms of transport costs and otheroverheads.

Apart from exports there is good potential for business of processing the timber and selling it to the interiors of India. Construction business is an ongoing activity. Cities located in an around Mumbai, Pune and Nasik are largest consumers of plywood, block board etc. Hence there is huge demand for these products.