From cost-driven clusters to cold chains and coastal cargo, Mumbai is witnessing a quiet logistics revolution shaped by demand, design, and decentralisation.
Mumbai’s logistics identity is undergoing a shift—not by disruption, but by design. While Bhiwandi continues to anchor high-volume warehousing, regions like Taloja are rising as specialised zones for cold storage and industrial cargo. Within the city, the demands of quick commerce are redefining warehousing footprints, even as multimodal upgrades, such as the Dedicated Freight Corridor and coastal shipping lanes, reshape how goods move across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
Mumbai’s warehousing landscape, in particular, is witnessing a scale-up in demand, with quick commerce and urban delivery players leading the charge. For instance, Swiggy-owned Scootsy Logistics has signed one of the largest warehousing lease deals in India this year, securing 580,000 sq ft at One K Square Logistic Park in Bhiwandi.
As India’s most sought-after warehousing destination, 20 km northeast of Mumbai, Bhiwandi continues to dominate as the region’s most active warehousing hub, driven largely by e-commerce, retail, and 3PL players. “Bhiwandi fulfilment hub and 3PLs are heavy—it's already going on and on,” says Deepak Tiwari, Director of Mumbai-based supply chain consultancy Syncoptichain Ventures. He previously worked with KSH Logistics, Transworld Terminals, CMA CGM, and dnata.
“Reliance, Flipkart, Amazon—all have massive facilities there.” He attributes Bhiwandi’s continued appeal to its price advantage over other areas. “The price between Taloja warehousing and Bhiwandi, there's a huge difference,” he notes, adding that developers and occupiers are pushing further outward as demand scales.
“The future of Mumbai’s logistics is decentralised. We’re moving from centralised warehouses to in-city dark stores and multi-level fulfilment centres.”
Deepak Tiwari, Syncoptichain Ventures
But if Bhiwandi is the high-volume, cost-sensitive logistics workhorse, Taloja is carving out its own identity as an industrial support zone—especially in the wake of the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA). It is located roughly 40 km east of Mumbai and just 15 km from NMIA.
“Taloja has a big setup of cold infrastructure,” says Tiwari. “There is a huge food processing zone, major cold hubs like Snowman.”
The proximity to the new airport and existing industrial zones is expected to reshape cargo movement patterns, especially for specific verticals. “The portion of pharma, export, and food processing could be a very near match for Navi Mumbai Airport,” he explains. “Pharma, electronics, and fashion—these are the areas that will come by air, and they will concentrate near Taloja.”
Moreover, the Taloja region’s land availability and red-zone classification make it a natural fit for the chemical and industrial logistics segments, which are finding it increasingly difficult to operate in Bhiwandi due to regulatory and zoning constraints.
While Bhiwandi will remain the logistics nerve centre for fast-moving consumer goods and last-mile e-commerce, Taloja is emerging as a specialised zone, aligning itself with industrial-grade logistics, value-added processing, and high-value cargo.
This shift toward larger warehousing footprints on the city’s outskirts is being complemented by an equally significant transformation within urban limits. According to Tiwari, Mumbai’s logistics future will be shaped by decentralisation and proximity-based fulfilment.
“The future is decentralised,” says Tiwari. “We’re moving from centralised warehouses to in-city dark stores and multi-level fulfilment centres. With eight-minute delivery becoming the norm, warehousing has to come closer to customers.”
Areas like Mankhurd, Chembur, and even parts of Navi Mumbai are emerging as potential hubs for such last-mile infrastructure. Tiwari sees quick commerce players like Zepto and Blinkit leading the transition with a new operational mindset.
“Blinkit, for example, is shifting from a marketplace model to holding its own inventory,” he says. “That means investment in better warehousing, automation, Warehouse Management System (WMS), and tech. They’ll want better margins and more control.”
This evolution from aggregator-style models to inventory-led fulfilment is expected to accelerate demand for smaller, smarter, and strategically located storage spaces inside the city. “It’s a big shift—and it’ll change Mumbai’s warehousing landscape in the next few years,” he says.
Sanjeev Jain, Amicus Growth Advisors
At the same time, broader forces are reinforcing Mumbai’s stature as India’s logistics nerve centre. A confluence of seaports, airports, roadways, industrial corridors, and emerging multi-modal infrastructure makes the MMR a natural choice for cargo consolidation and distribution.
According to Sanjeev Jain, Managing Partner at Amicus Growth Advisors, this dominance isn’t accidental but deeply rooted in geography, industrial concentration, and infrastructural evolution.
“Almost more than 30% of the country’s cargo originates from Mumbai and around Mumbai.” This enormous cargo footprint is anchored in a wide industrial base. Jain points out that multiple sectors drive this growth from across Maharashtra.
“Major industry concentration in Mumbai is pharma, chemical, textile, electronics,” he says. “There are a lot of industries and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) clusters spread across Maharashtra. But the major clusters are in Pune, Kolhapur, and Aurangabad.”
Despite Mumbai’s scale, its logistics ecosystem is still heavily reliant on road transport. “Road contributes almost 70% of the entire cargo load. Railway is hardly 10–12%, and coastal sea is very negligible,” Jain explains. “But this is going to change in the next four to five years.”
The ongoing development of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), culminating at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), is expected to shift significant cargo volumes from road to rail.
“This Western DFC connects Dadri to JNPA. Once the JNPA terminus is operational, this will become a very central point—a major hub where the rail and port both are terminal,” he says.
“JNPA is also well connected with the road. So I see this as a large logistics hub where DFC terminus, road connectivity, and sea connectivity all meet.”
Complementing this rail shift is a renewed interest in coastal shipping, particularly along the western coast between Gujarat, Mumbai, and the southern ports. “That is suitable for heavy cargo like tiles, metals, and other goods. A couple of companies are trying their coastal shipping on this route.”
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, emphasised the potential for coastal and water transport in Mumbai and the MMR region, which can not only ease logistics but also reduce logistics costs, during the recent Maharashtra Maritime Summit 2025.
“If we incur a cost of ₹1 by moving cargo by road, rail is 30 paisa, and water is 10 paisa,” he says.
From high-speed last-mile delivery nodes to hinterland industrial hubs and port-rail convergence points, Mumbai’s logistics engine is adapting to both immediate demands and long-term shifts. What emerges is not just a map of infrastructure, but a blueprint of how location, mode, and industry are converging to create new supply chain ecosystems across the region.
This article was originally published in the Indian Transport & Logistics News' June-July 2025 issue.