Warehouse leasing in Calcutta grew more than double of the national average in 2024, underlining the city’s pull as a major trading and transit hub servicing the entire eastern region.

A report published by real estate consultancy Knight Frank said leasing in the city stood at 6.5 million square feet, up 28 per cent in comparison with a 12 per cent rise on a consolidated basis in the major warehousing markets of the country. Only Chennai had recorded a higher growth (29 per cent) than Calcutta among centres surveyed in the report.

Third party logistics companies such as Mahindra Logistics and Safexpress, which professionally manage warehousing space for end users such as FMCG players, were the largest occupiers apart from e-commerce companies in the city.

Dankuni and its neighbourhoods and National Highway 16 (old NH6), due to their connectivity to North, South and Western India were the major centres of new transactions in Calcutta, as they have been traditionally.

The strong demand worked in favour of the developers who could command a higher rent. Calcutta recorded the second-highest rental value at ₹24.8 per square foot a month, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 4 per cent. It trailed only Pune, which led with a rental value of ₹26.6 per square foot a month.

A key feature of 2024 was the rise in prominence of e-commerce players who cornered 23 per cent of transactions, compared with 15 per cent in 2023. Among the eight cities covered, Calcutta led in e-commerce transactions with 29 per cent of the national share. Amazon, Flipkart and Swiggy were active in this space.

Commenting on the numbers, Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director of Knight Frank India, said, “Calcutta’s warehousing market continues to show resilience and growth, fuelled by strong occupier demand, infrastructure developments, and supportive policy initiatives. Despite challenges like the limited availability of grade A space, the sector remains on a steady growth path.”

In November 2023, the state government had come out with a logistic policy which was aimed to position Bengal as a logistics hub and create employment from the sector by strengthening infrastructure, services and reducing operational and regulatory hurdles. It promised to reduce logistics cost by 40 per cent.

Baijal noted that with ongoing infrastructure improvements and a favourable policy environment, Calcutta is poised to maintain its status as a key warehousing hub in eastern India given the rising demand from logistics players.

Nationally, the city stood fifth in the pecking order by absolute volume with Mumbai on top (see chart).