The company has embarked upon an expansion plan of Rs 100 crore over a period of three years, of which it plans to spend Rs 40 crore this year. The implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) package is underway at a cost of Rs 10 crore while Internet connectivity between branches, which is almost complete, would cost another Rs 10 crore.

The expansion would be funded partly by internal accruals and term loans.The remaining Rs 20 crore would go in for acquiring offices and warehouses as the company plans to get into the bonded warehouses business and opening outlets in unrepresented areas, Agarwal added.

Gati also plans to have its own outlet in each district of India by the end of the calender year. The company currently is represented in 300 of the 520 districts in India.

The company owns 80 per cent of the outlets while the rest are franchisees. The company is also in the process of spreading its wings to the Saarc countries and discussions are currently on for tie-ups, Agarwal said. The company also plans to induct one more ship by the end of the year with a capacity of 4,800 tonnes and later plans to enter coastal shipping. The company currently operates three ships with a total capacity of 10,400 tonnes between Port Blair and Chennai.

The company is likely to post a turnover of Rs 205 crore for the year ending June, 2000 and the bottomline is expected to double over its previous year, Agarwal indicated. The Gati scrip was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange last month.