National Logistics Policy to expand business

The National Logistics Policy, now under consultation, together with the National Logistics Council and State Logistics Coordination Committee, will work as a template for better coordination and integrated development of logistics center, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

“The logistics team in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry is trying to work towards integrating the various means of transport, documentation, and stakeholders, including customs, ports, shipping companies, railways, trucking companies, inland waterways…through technology platforms,” the Minister said addressing the first National Conference of States on Logistics on Tuesday. This would result in a much-simplified way of working, which will enhance the ease of doing business.

Goyal described logistics as the lifeline of the nation’s economy and industry and pointed out that in the midst of the lockdown, the country was able to ensure that “not a single person had to suffer for want of food grains, power, essential commodities”.

Stating that India had a logistics ecosystem of about $200 billion, Goyal said that a good part of it is supported by the Indian Railways. “We are making massive efforts to bring down the cost of logistics and expand the scope of service that Railways provide. Using the Covid-19 crisis as an opportunity, Railways reoriented its pattern of working. A zero-based time table was created,” he said. The Minister added that on January 18, the average freight speed train speed was 46.77 km per hour as compared to 22.47 km per hour last year in the same period. The average freight speed train in the first eighteen days of January was 97 percent higher than in the same period last year.

The Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), which will only carry freight transport, will increase speed exponentially and bring down the cost while adding huge capacity to be able to transport volume goods and small parcels, the Minister said. “By 2022, we will have both, the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors ready and will serve the people of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first 650 km of dedicated freight corridor on both, the Eastern and the Western fronts. By March, we will have another 350-400 km of DFC ready,” he said.