The feature was added in Gradle here:
https://github.com/gradle/gradle/pull/3041
You can increase the timeout with 2 properties:
./gradlew build -Dhttp.socketTimeout=60000 -Dhttp.connectionTimeout=60000
As commented by Sue C, If you are using gradle 4.10.2 or later version use following properties:
./gradlew build -Dorg.gradle.internal.http.socketTimeout=60000 -Dorg.gradle.internal.http.connectionTimeout=60000