JOIN USFlipkart, India's largest e-commerce marketplace, is planning to set up a logistics park near Bengaluru at an investment of Rs 200 crore.
The proposed park will be spread over 4.5 million square feet space and the company intends to acquire around 100 acres of land on the outskirts of Bengaluru, a top company official told DH.
"The fully-integrated park, which will house several Flipkart Fulfilment Centres, will improve supply chain efficiency and reduce costs by deploying mechanised warehousing, acting as a freight aggregation and distribution hub, and by leveraging technology for intelligent transport systems," Flipkart official said.
"Geographically, a logistics park near Bengaluru is ideally placed to cater to diverse industries across the 4 regional states due to its central location in Southern India," an industry analyst tracking the sector said.
According to the World Bank, logistics cost in India is among the highest in the world, accounting for 14% of total value of goods compared to 6%-8% in developed economies.
The proposed logistics park is expected to create 5,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs by 2020 through peripheral industries, supporting logistics activities like trucking, cost and freight (C&F) and other services.
According to a recent regulatory filing, Flipkart's logistics arm Ekart Logistics received a funding of ₹1,632 crore from Klick2Shop.
Recently, Flipkart evinced interest in acquiring at least one million square feet of space in an upcoming logistics park in Andhra Pradesh. The Visakhapatnam Port Trust is building the facility with a total investment of about Rs 600 crore.