New Delhi - India is looking at setting up an umbrella agency to formulate integrated transportation plans and drive                 the overall strategy across all modes of surface transport, railways, shipping and civil aviation at national level. The agency would be responsible for development and finalisation of 5-year and 25-year plans and their regular monitoring.

It has learnt that three empowered groups of secretaries have referred to the need of setting up Integrated Transport Planning Agency (ITPA) in their presentations on transformational change before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The agency will be akin to the establishments in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Japan to deal with all issues relating to transportation.

The details of the proposed agency and its responsibilities are being finalised, sources said. “This will help take the best decisions for creating the right infrastructure keeping in mind the value for money. Comprehensive assessment would be carried out by the agency for capacity augmentation for both passenger and freight movement. This will help channelise govt investment,” said an official.

The agency will also coordinate with states for key infrastructure projects. Officials said ITPA can come up with the best solutions to bring down logistics cost rather than have different departments or ministries pitching suggestions that often compete with each other. Though the roll out of GatiShakti platform for integrated planning is getting traction, currently it’s mostly confined to central government projects.

As per the proposal, ITPA would prepare an overall plan for integrated transportation solutions and get it approved by March 2026.

Sources said the plan envisages achieving the target of moving over 42% of freight by rail or waterways, as they are cheaper modes of transportation and cause less pollution, by 2030. Govt also envisages increasing the average speed of freight trains to 40 kmph by 2030 as compared to the current speed of 24 kmph. Similarly, the target is also to increase the average speed of trucks from current 25-40 kmph to more than 40 kmph in the next six years.