The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Anurag Jain has told CNBC-TV18 that the Union Ministry for Shipping and Waterways and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) are planning to transport foodgrain via the public distribution system (PDS) to northeast India via waterways.
Describing the National Logistics Policy as yet another government decision aimed at reducing carbon footprint and meeting India's COP 26 targets by reducing energy wastage, Jain pointed out that waterways are a cheaper mode of transport than roads and railways and the policy aims at changing the modal mix of transportation in India. Terming the already-functional inland waterway 1 as a cheaper and eco-friendly mode of transport, he said that development of the remaining waterways will only improve the system.
Jain elucidated that the current load on India's roads for transportation is more than what is desirable, while it's lesser for railways and inland waterways. The improvement of efficiency in logistics via multi-modal connectivity aims at a conscious shift towards more use of railways and waterways to drive down transportation costs as the tonne per kilometre cost is double for roads as compared to the Indian Railways, whose carbon-neutrality target of 2030 will also make the move environmentally-sustainable.
He said the National Logistics Policy aims to cut costs and optimise travel plans as visibility of modes of transport on the platform will reduce journeys with empty trucks and wagons.
The National Logistics Policy and the PM Gati Shakti scheme plan to make India meet the global benchmark of logistics cost of 8-9 percent of its GDP by 2030, as compared to the present 13-14 percent.
The DPIIT Secretary said that a drop in cost of logistics won't just benefit Indian consumers, but would also make Indian manufacturers more competitive. He pointed out that the preparation time of the detailed project report (DPR) and land acquisition cases is down from six months to 1 or 1.5 months with the National Logistics Policy shortening the life cycle of development of a project. With a logistics operator needing to interact with 30 systems across even ministries, Jain said that the policy has been able to identify critical infrastructure gaps and make decisions more optimal.
All systems across ministries have been integrated into the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) to bring in efficiency, cut costs as well as allow for use in local languages to make the scheme more pervasive across all stratas of the logistics spectrum.
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