New Delhi: The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is working towards formulating an integrated, multi modal logistics and transport policy which will reduce logistics costs in the country by nearly half, making Indian products more competitive. The strategy would be to adopt a “hub-and –spoke” model for the logistics sector in place of the present “point-to-point” model. Shri Gadkari was speaking in New Delhi today, at the curtain raiser event for the India Integrated Transport and Logistics Summit scheduled from the 3rd to 5th of May, 2017.
Shri Gadkari further said that the integrated policy would include construction of 50 Economic Corridors and upgrading key feeder and inter corridor routes to improve overall efficiency of freight movement. The plan also includes developing 35 multimodal logistics parks to serve as centres for freight aggregation and distribution, multimodal transportation, storage and warehousing and value added services. In addition, there are also plans to construct 10 Inter-Modal Stations which integrate various transportation modes like rail, road, mass rapid transit system, bus rapid transit (BRT), auto-rickshaw, taxi and private vehicles.
An overall network of about 56,000 km has been identified including existing national corridors (Golden Quadrilateral and NS-EW Corridor)), proposed economic corridors, inter corridor routes and feeder routes. In addition to this 191 towns/ cities have been identified on these routes where steps will to be taken to reduce congestion. Inter-state border movement related documentation and procedure will also be simplified. These interventions will enable a reduction of 5 – 6% in the overall supply chain costs in the economy.Logistics Parks will help reduce transportation cost for the top 15 nodes by about 10 percent, besides reducing pollution, congestion and warehousing costs. Chennai and Vijayawada have already identified land parcels for development of logistics parks. Pre-feasibility study will be initiated in these two cities on immediate basis.
This is the first time ever that the development of the transport sector is being done in such an integrated manner. The plan would serve to make the economy competitive by reducing logistics costs, bring down pollution levels by reducing congestion on roads, give a boost to industry and create employment.
In context of the above plans, the upcoming India Integrated Transport and Logistics Summit will be a very significant event. The Summit would provide an ideal platform for various stakeholders from Government – Road, Rail, Air, Urban Planning, etc. –, Infrastructure developers in the private sector and global experts to come together and discuss issues plaguing the logistics sector and the potential solution themes for the same. Transformation of the logistics sector is only possible through an integrated system based approach that cuts across modes of transport, administrative geographies, and integrates capital investment with regulatory and policy development. The upcoming Summit is expected to be the forum where such integrated planning can take shape.
IITLS will have an exhibition running around the theme of logistics and transportation across all the 3 days. The exhibition will provide an excellent platform for companies to understand the various opportunities available in different segments of transport sector in India. The inventors can meet the policy makers to know more about the investment policies and opportunities. The manufacturers and service providers can demonstrate their products to the make the Indian market aware about their products and to seek business tie ups. Indian companies, both in manufacturing as well as services, will get an opportunity to meet international players for export opportunities. The exhibition will be spread over an area of ~10,000 sq. m. and is expected to have 120+ Indian and global companies showcasing their products.
The conference will have theme sessions on the following topics, and will bring together global and Indian speaker to discuss on the topical issues. Over 50 Indian and global industry leaders will be participating in these theme sessions.
- Road freight corridors for economic development
- Public Private Partnerships: Multimodal Logistics Parks
- GST: Changing logistics models
- New possibilities: Inland waterways and coastal shipping
- Gateways: Congestion, clearance, transit times and role of digitization
- Urban transportation: New developments
- Supply chain transformation: Storage innovations
- Standards and skills for logistics
Moreover, IITLS will bring together the states to explore opportunities of improving the transport and logistics in the regions. The state sessions planned in the conference will provide opportunities to stakeholders to debate issues and clearly bring out the investment opportunities in the region. The CEO forum will provide an opportunity of close engagement with industry leaders to discuss on the issues in logistics and potential recommendations for improving the sector. 50-60 industry leaders across global and Indian infrastructure developers, user industries, government bodies will be part of the CEO forum.
Finally, the Summit will provide opportunities for multiple B2B and B2G meetings which will help enhance the investment climate in India. With 1000+ delegates expected in the summit, it will provide a strong opportunity of networking among the business community.
