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Important highlights:
- Ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Civil Aviation must work in coordination to decrease 14% logistics cost to 9%
- Central scheme for cold chain across the country especially for fruits, vegetables & perishables may be made part of the action plan
- Govt’s Logistics Department must be made part of consultation processes whenever any new road, railway, airport and shipping port project is being considered
- Aim of National Logistics Policy is to bring the logistics cost in a single digit of GDP by the year 2022
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways, reviewed the draft National Logistics Policy and the proposed action plan for implementation of the policy prepared by the Department of Logistics, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The draft National Logistics Policy has been prepared in consultation with the Ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Civil Aviation. Forty-six Partnering Government Agencies (PGAs) inputs were analysed in detail for consideration in the Policy.
The minister in his opening remarks urged that all the four Ministries and their departments must leverage existing infrastructure to support each other in the logistics chain. This will not only help in maximizing capacity utilization but also reduce costs he added.
Goyal directed that all four Ministries must work in coordination with each other so that the 14% logistics cost of India’s GDP may be brought down to 9%. In the meeting, all aspects of logistics related to railways, civil aviation, shipping and inland waterways, road transport, ropeways warehousing and cold chain were discussed in detail.
Central scheme for Cold Chain on cards
Piyush Goyal exhorted the line Ministries that all efforts must be made for farm produce of food grains, fruits and vegetables to reach from farm to market with minimum wastage of time.
He also said that a central scheme for cold chain across the country especially for fruits, vegetables and perishables may be made part of the action plan of the draft logistics policy so that it improves efficiency and reduces the loss in agri produce of farmers.
During the review meeting issues relating to rail freight rationalization and freight policy for Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), having immediate implications for the modal shift were discussed at length.
Commerce and Industry Minister also directed that whenever any new road, railway, airport and shipping port project is being considered the Logistics Department must be a part of the consultation process so that holistic planning will be possible, freight movement will be rationalized and passenger experience will improve.
(According to the official press release of Union Minister of Commerce)
