Synopsis
Global companies are diversifying supply chains, benefiting India, Vineet Sekhsaria, India head at Prologis, told ET. Manufacturing regions like Chennai are seeing rising demand for modern logistics infrastructure. Prologis is expanding its presence in Tamil Nadu, investing significantly in new logistics and industrial parks."When you look at how global companies are diversifying their supply chain, India is definitely benefiting from that trend," Vineet Sekhsaria, India head at Prologis, told ET. "Manufacturing regions such as Chennai, and specifically Tamil Nadu, are seeing increased interest from that. There's rising demand from companies who are building export and domestic supply chains - whether it's automotive, electronics or other engineering services - we're seeing demand from a host of companies and the other suppliers around that ecosystem."
Prologis has begun construction of a new logistics and industrial park at Redhills in North Chennai. The total development potential is of around 1.1 million sq ft on a 51-acre site. Construction is now underway and this marks the company's third location in Tamil Nadu. Other locations include Hosur and Sriperumbudur and together these represent about 6.5 million sq ft and around Rs 3,300 crore of investment.
Sekhsaria said that locations like North Chennai are increasingly relevant for companies combining manufacturing with distribution, and demand is being driven by both domestic growth and global supply chain shifts, including diversification of manufacturing footprints.
India is a key long-term growth market for Prologis globally and the company is in the early stages of building a scaled logistics platform in the country, he said. Prologis has already acquired approximately 400 acres across six sites in India, representing close to 9 million square feet of development potential within 18 months. It also recently completed its first development in India, Prologis Park Hoskote, Bengaluru, delivering approximately 600,000 square feet across two buildings on a 30-acre site.
Sekhsaria reiterated that the current focus of the firm is on major logistics and manufacturing corridors including Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune. The approach being to secure well-located sites and build a strong foundation for long-term development. However, he did not rule out the company evaluating other sites and going where customers needed their services most.
"We evaluate land everywhere," he said when asked whether the company was looking to set up shop in G"A lot of things have to stack up for it to make sense for projects to buy land. Gujarat is a market that we're going to be looking at. We've not transacted anything there yet, but it's definitely something that we're going to be looking at going forward."
He also highlighted that customer expectations are shifting with greater focus on power capacity, layout and throughput for larger, more efficient facilities increasing the gap between modern logistics parks and older industrial stock. Sekhsaria said the company's focus in India is squarely on logistics and industrial infrastructure and the demand is for large-format, high-specification logistics in key manufacturing and supply chain corridors.
