Flipkart opened the largest fulfilment centre in Haringhata, West Bengal, to create employment opportunities and promote entrepreneurship in eastern India. The facility will create over 11,000 employment opportunities and will support around 20,000 sellers from the state and North-East region. It was virtually inaugurated during the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) by CM Mamta Banerjee. CM said that it would be one of the largest fulfilment centres in the country as the e-commerce logistics industry in India takes a stride with the establishment of a state-of-the-art futuristic fulfilment centre in Haringhata. The Big Box unit has an integrated supply chain management spread across 110 acres. The facility would help Flipkart compete with Amazon, JioMart, and BigBasket, which are also scaling up their infrastructure to tap the online retail market. CEO of Flipkart, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, said that the launch of the Haringhata fulfilment centre will further strengthen supply chain infrastructure and is also an important milestone in creating technology-led modern warehousing infrastructure in the country. The company said the Haringhata facility had achieved the unique distinction of being India’s first e-commerce facility, provisionally certified with a Platinum rating by the Indian Green Buildings Council (IGBC) under its Green Logistics Parks and Warehouses Rating System. It will reduce carbon emissions and enhance energy and water savings and rainwater harvesting. In 2021, Amazon India announced its plans to expand its fulfilment network in India, with about a 40% increase in its storage capacity over the previous period. With this expansion, Amazon will have over 43 million cubic feet of storage capacity in 15 states, supporting around 850,000 sellers across India. The expansion project aims to create thousands of direct and indirect work opportunities. Amazon has committed to creating around 20 lakh direct and indirect jobs by 2025. Amazon India’s overall fulfilment network will spread over 10 million sq ft. Image Source