• India’s warehousing sector is shifting from basic storage to high-tech, vertical, and automated facilities, designed for complex supply chains, with DHL expanding to nearly 20 million sq ft and emphasising productivity, data-driven planning, and sustainability.
• Air-cargo integration and specialised logistics, particularly for pharmaceuticals and life sciences, are central, with GDP-compliant cold-chain warehouses and multimodal networks ensuring reliable, time-sensitive movement to airports and supporting India’s goal of tripling air-cargo capacity to 10 million tonnes by 2030.
• The logistics expansion is moving beyond metro hubs into Tier-2 and emerging manufacturing clusters, supporting end-to-end inbound-to-outbound supply chains, production-linked industries, and sustainable operations, positioning India’s infrastructure for global trade competitiveness.

India’s warehousing and logistics landscape is undergoing a major transformation. As global supply chains recalibrate and domestic manufacturing scales rapidly, Vikas Anand, Managing Director of DHL Supply Chain India, offered an exclusive insight into how logistics infrastructure is evolving from basic storage to high-specification, technology-enabled, air-cargo-linked ecosystems—and what this means for the next decade of Indian trade.

Over the past five years, DHL Supply Chain has doubled its warehousing footprint in India to nearly 20 million sq ft . Yet Anand stressed that scale alone is no longer the defining metric. “It’s not about doubling the footprint; it’s about what we are building for the future,” he said, highlighting a sector-wide pivot towards vertical, automated, and data-driven warehouses designed to support complex supply chains rather than merely store inventory.

Verticality and the new industrial architecture

Anand identified the move towards vertical infrastructure as the single biggest structural shift in India’s warehousing sector. Modern facilities are now typically over 12 metres high—a response to rising land costs, manufacturing clusters, and the need for higher throughput.

“When I say vertical, it’s not just about height. It’s about transforming productivity, labour planning, and supply-chain design, which demands a solution-oriented approach,” he explained.

DHL’s modern warehouses differ fundamentally from generic storage ‘boxes.’ They are engineered from the inside out, optimised for automation flows, specialised racking, material-handling systems, and sustainable design. Automation is no longer a differentiator; it is essential for operational resilience.

India’s air cargo ambition and a logistics backbone for scale

India aims to triple its air-cargo handling capacity to 10 million tonnes by 2030. Achieving this requires more than airport upgrades: it demands a seamless, compliant, and multimodal warehousing system capable of feeding high-value, time-sensitive cargo efficiently into air gateways.

“The next five years will be about automation, sustainability, and data,” Anand noted.

Data is increasingly central to DHL’s operations, supporting planning, forecasting, and customer engagement. Machine learning-enabled forecasting, network optimisation, and digital manpower planning are already rolled out across India. These tools, combined with long-term customer contracts, allow DHL to move from reactive logistics to consultative supply-chain orchestration.

Life sciences: Building compliance-led, air-ready infrastructure

India’s growing role as a global pharmaceutical and life-sciences hub requires highly specialised logistics. DHL Supply Chain’s new Life Sciences Experience Centre is a multi-client, GDP-compliant cold-chain complex capable of supporting domestic and export movements.

“We have invested in capital expenditure to offer value-added services such as overprinting, labelling, and cold-chain processing—all under one roof,” Anand said.

The facility integrates deep-freeze, ambient, and bespoke temperature zones, allowing flexible models for multiple manufacturers. For air cargo, such infrastructure is critical. Pharmaceuticals and medical devices are among India’s fastest-growing exports, and predictable cold-chain movement between factory, warehouse, and airport is essential for CEIV Pharma and GDP compliance—standards increasingly required by regulators and overseas buyers.

The shift beyond metros: Tier-2 India as the next supply-chain frontier

As manufacturing expands into Tier-2 and emerging clusters, DHL is proactively aligning its operations. “The ecosystem in India is changing… where the industry goes, we want to be there,” Anand said.

Emerging manufacturing hubs—from semiconductor parks in Dholera, Gujarat, to production zones in the North-East—will require sophisticated inbound-to-manufacturing and outbound logistics. For air cargo providers, this expansion intensifies the need for air-linked multimodal corridors, new freight consolidation hubs, bonded warehousing, and last-mile infrastructure capable of feeding metro airports efficiently.

Inbound-to-manufacturing: A strategic shift

DHL’s focus is no longer limited to outbound distribution. “We aspire to be the service provider of choice for factories. From inbound to manufacturing to outbound, we want to take care of everything,” Anand said.

This end-to-end approach aligns with India’s “Make in India, for the world” agenda and the growth of production-linked incentive (PLI)-backed manufacturing in electronics, EVs, batteries, and engineering goods—all sectors that rely heavily on airfreight for time-critical components.

Sustainability: The next competitive layer

Sustainability is increasingly non-negotiable. DHL’s facilities now feature LED lighting, green energy, water-reuse systems, and optimised traffic flows. With global shippers and regulators tightening carbon measurement frameworks, sustainable design is rapidly becoming a competitive differentiator in India’s air logistics sector.

India on the global stage

Looking ahead to Air Cargo India 2026, Anand said: “We are talking about the yellow advantage… that is what attendees will see more of.”

India is demonstrating a logistics ecosystem increasingly aligned with international standards, where vertical infrastructure, automation, cold-chain readiness, and data-rich operations converge to drive the next phase of air-cargo growth.