CARGOCONNECT-AUGUST 2025 - Flipbook - Page 28
COVER STORY : NEW URBAN EQUATION
“Industrial parks are moving closer to consumption
centres, reshaping how cities expand,” says Narayan. He
highlights that parks today are far from being isolated
logistics zones. “They are emerging as infrastructure
catalysts that uplift local economies—driving demand
for surrounding real-estate, from residential clusters
to convenience shopping. Their presence encourages
job creation, improves local roads and utilities, and
strengthens vendor ecosystems. With hybrid land-use
planning now more common, these parks are also supporting both manufacturing and ful昀椀lment functions
within tighter urban footprints, allowing city regions to
accommodate growth more e昀케ciently,” he puts across.
Singh sees these developments as part of a broader
shift driven by national infrastructure initiatives.
He notes that the rise of new-age industrial hubs is
recon昀椀guring how urban land is used. Supported by
programmes like GatiShakti and the Smart Cities Mission, many of these hubs are designed as self-sustaining
ecosystems—merging warehousing, commercial activity,
residential areas, and mobility infrastructure into
a single development framework. As cities expand,
Singh observes how industrial real-estate is moving
closer to end consumers, transforming peripheral
and underutilised zones into high-value, high-density
micro-economies. “This decentralised model reduces
urban sprawl, eases tra昀케c pressure, and encourages
balanced development—prompting a rethinking of
the real-estate blueprint for modern Indian cities,” he
emphasises.
Alok Bansal, Founder of 13sqft.com and Director
at BuildMyInfra, o昀昀ers a ground-level perspective from
working directly with a wide array of B2B clients such
as Kriptart, Amazon, Zepto, Jumatro, Jilkit, Gophers,
and Big Basket. “While the businesses di昀昀er in size and
structure, their expectations are strikingly similar.
28 | CARGOCONNECT AUGUST 2025
Everyone wants faster deliveries to their end consumers, and to achieve that, they need fast and e昀케cient
infrastructure,” he says.
However, Bansal notes that this expectation creates
signi昀椀cant time pressure in warehouse execution. “The
kind of warehouses we deal with typically require a
lead time of at least three months to
be fully functional. Yet, many clients
expect us to complete everything—from
Placing fulfilment
site measurement and layout planning to design and supply—within just
centres within 1-2 km of
two months, sometimes even less,” he
urban demand hotspots
shares, adding that these compressed
drastically cuts last-mile
timelines are extremely demanding
to meet.
costs and delivery times.
Bansal also addresses the evolvDecentralised hubs outside
ing geographic demand for logistics
city centres balance
infrastructure. “Earlier, we thought
warehouse demand would eventually
affordability with speed,
shift away from the metro cities and
enabling quick response to
move more into tier II and III locademand spikes, enhancing
tions, especially after some level of
consolidation in larger cities. But what
customer satisfaction,
we've seen is that demand in metros
and supporting efficient,
remains strong, and now we’re also
eco-friendly last-mile
witnessing a steady rise in activity
from tier II cities like Goa, Coimbatore,
logistics.
Dehradun, Bhopal, and several others.
This shift has been quite surprising,
but also very encouraging,” he remarks.
He attributes this trend to rising digital adoption
in smaller cities, where consumers increasingly prefer
online purchases, including convenience and luxury
items, over visiting physical stores. “This change is
bene昀椀cial not only for e-commerce companies but also
for the overall economy,” he adds.
