Kolkata tops eastern India's industrial, logistics market: CBRE

Kolkata has retained its position as Eastern India's largest industrial and logistics market, with its warehousing stock surpassing 24 million square feet during the first half of 2026, according to a report released on 11 August by CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd., titled "Shaping Future Scale: Eastern India as a Vital Engine for Industrial and Logistics Growth." The milestone reflects the city's growing standing as a manufacturing, warehousing and distribution hub, backed by sustained infrastructure investment, multimodal connectivity and rising occupier demand.

Kolkata's industrial and logistics leasing reached approximately 1.8 million square feet in the January-June period, up 69 per cent over the preceding six months. Leasing in the sector recorded a compound annual growth rate of 25 per cent between 2020 and 2025, with more than 80 per cent of that leasing concentrated between 2022 and 2025, a period also marked by major supply additions in 2022 and 2024 that together accounted for nearly 70 per cent of completions since 2020. The city has drawn an estimated 170 million US dollars in industrial and logistics investment between 2020 and the first half of 2026.

Third-party logistics companies have led leasing activity in Kolkata since 2020, accounting for 35 per cent of cumulative space take-up through the first half of 2026, followed by e-commerce at 15 per cent, retail at 12 per cent, and engineering and manufacturing along with FMCG at 11 per cent each. FMCG space take-up alone rose four times year-on-year in the first half of 2026, led largely by food and beverage players, who accounted for more than 70 per cent of leasing within that segment.

The city's development pipeline remains strong, with close to 3 million square feet of additional warehousing space expected by the first half of 2027, nearly 70 per cent of it to be developed by leading institutional developers, pointing to sustained investor confidence in Kolkata's long-term growth prospects.

CBRE's report frames this as part of a wider transformation across Eastern India. Guwahati is strengthening its role as the logistics gateway to India's Northeast through multimodal logistics parks, inland waterways and cross-border trade links, while Bhubaneswar is emerging as a key industrial destination on the back of port-led development, expanding manufacturing activity and investment in strategic industrial corridors.

Anshuman Magazine, CBRE's chairman and CEO for India, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa, said Eastern India was emerging as a key growth engine in the country's industrial and logistics landscape, pointing to infrastructure investment, supportive policy and expanding manufacturing as the drivers, and said the region's strategic location and improving connectivity made it increasingly attractive to occupiers focused on supply chain resilience.

Ram Chandnani, CBRE's managing director for leasing services in India, said occupier demand across Eastern India was becoming more diversified, spanning manufacturers, third-party logistics providers, e-commerce firms and consumer-facing industries, and said the region was expected to sustain strong leasing momentum and draw deeper institutional capital, positioning it among India's fastest-growing industrial and logistics markets.