RETAIL
federal levies, has
helped unify India’s
29 states into a single
market. That’s brought
a structural shift to the
logistics sector as small,
fragmented networks
are consolidated into
large distribution chains
with centralized hubs.
The rise of e-commerce
giants Amazon Inc. and
Flipkart Online Services
Pvt. has also stoked the
need for seamless, last-
mile delivery of goods in
cities and the country’s
remote towns and
villages.
The explosive growth
in online shopping
is expected to give a
further boost. The $35
billion e-commerce
market is projected to
grow 25 percent a year
for the next five years
and exceed $100 billion
by 2022, according to a
report by tech industry
body Nasscom and
PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Knight Frank estimates.
The government has also
given infrastructure status
to the logistics industry,
allowing developers to
access lower-cost funding
for developments.
“Over the next decade,
we envisage a potent mix
of drivers to transform
Warehouses accounted
the large yet inefficient,
for about $3.4 billion, or
logistics sector,” Alok
26 percent, of private
Deshpande, an analyst at
equity real-estate
Edelweiss Securities Ltd.,
investments between
2014 and 2017, according said in a note this week.
to Knight Frank LLP.
The rosy outlook is
Returns for a warehouse
even encouraging some
development can reach
developers to shift their
28 percent, and exceed
focus from housing to
20 percent in most major
warehouses.
markets, according to
December 2018 | 29