Go-ahead to multi-modal policy
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 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, informs Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari. The strategy would be to adopt a ‘hub-and-spoke’ model for the logistics sector in place of the present ‘pointto-point’ model. 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 NSEW Corridor), proposed economic corridors, intercorridor 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. Interstate border movement related documentation and
procedure will also be simplified. These interventions will enable a reduction of five to six per cent in the overall supply chain costs in the economy.
The strategy would be to adopt a ‘hub-and-spoke’ model for the logistics sector in place of the present ‘point-topoint’ model
Logistics Parks will help reduce transportation cost for the top 15 nodes by about 10 per cent, besides reducing pollution, congestion and warehousing costs. 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.