The most critical challenge in warehousing is still land-buying. As Aditya Virwani, COO, Embassy Group, highlights: “Acquiring the right piece of land with the right connectivity and scope for development within the right price is highly crucial. It is essential to make land acquisition rules consistent across states, thereby reducing entry barriers and mutation implications on cost and time. If all this is handled, robust logistics infrastructure can bridge the gap between Tier I, Tier II and Tier-III cities and rural areas.” A major challenge is conducting an operational assessment determining how much space you need to accomplish existing tasks and support sales growth, according to Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman & Managing Director, Hiranandani Communities & GreenBase. Then, how will space be best used? “The location of the proposed warehouse facility is likely to be a key driver of implementation and ongoing transport costs,” he responds. “Thus, speculation in land prices, last-mile infrastructure development and availability along with PEB vendors may have some impact; this needs a strategic approach for seamless flow of business in order to grow.” Need to standardise building and design for warehouse development For faster and quality warehouses, the foremost need is a standardised building code for warehouses, where there will be a general accepted guiding principle for all warehouse developers. As Virwani shares: “Ninety per cent of this segment is unorganised. Freely available, substandard warehouses are hampering customers and their operations. A clearly defined building code will eliminate all confusion around minimum specifications to offer. There will be a certain specified quality of infrastructure available. This will also benefit ease of building and design, and strongly support better infrastructure.” SERAPHINA D’SOUZA