NEW DELHI: The Government will soon come out with a national masterplan for providing multi-modal connectivity across various industrial hubs to cut down logistics cost and improve competitiveness of local manufacturing, a Government official said recently.

 

This would set the time frame for building infrastructure facilities of world standards, said Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). “We all are aware that India needs to do a lot to improve logistics costs and time. One major initiative that is expected to be announced soon by the government is the national master plan for providing multi-modal connectivity all across the country wherever any economic activity is happening whether industrial clusters, parks or estates,” Mohapatra said at a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). All infrastructure ministries such as those handling shipping, railways and civil aviation will be given a timeline under this masterplan to ensure multi-modal connectivity of global quality to various production centres in the country by 2024, Mohapatra said. Multi-modal transportation involves several modes of transportation–railways, roads, waterways, for delivery of goods. 

 

This masterplan will soon be placed before the cabinet and once approved, definite timelines will given to different ministries, he said.

 

Reducing logistics cost is a priority for the Narendra Modi administration. Recently, a department of logistics has been created within the ministry of commerce and industry, headed by a secretary rank official. This department will come out with a policy to reduce logistics cost and time, he said.

 

Logistics cost in India has been a pain point for the industry for a long time although removal of state border controls after GST was introduced in 2017 has helped save time. Mohapatra also said officials have identified activities of the government that adds to compliance burden, which will be addressed soon. He also said that the vehicle scrappage policy is under discussions. At present, the question of whether customers should be incentivised is under being examined and once that is resolved, the policy will be cleared, said Mohapatra.

 

He said the government will continue to improve the business climate in the country.