The central government should consider the integration of all transport departments under one entity in order to address all issues related to cargo movement and logistics in India, Vijay Chhibber, former secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India said.
Speaking at the Moneycontrol Policy Next event in Delhi, the Director General, of Energy Power Transmission said that despite the efforts taken by the central government in the last few years to develop physical and digital infrastructure in the logistics industry in India, the implementation on the ground has not seen a massive transformation.
"The road sector is still the largest sector in terms of transportation of cargo in India, the Indian Railways and Shipping are still lagging behind despite all the effort taken by the government in the last few years," Chhibber said.
Transport ministries include likes of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Civil Aviation, and Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.
He added that in order to facilitate change on the ground and reduce the cost of logistics in India, the government should at least consider launching a dedicated agency to work along with ministries and state governments to address issues of logistics in the country.
Similarly, Jaffrey Thomas, Partner Logistics and Transport Infrastructure PwC India, said that the government needs to come out with a policy and investment plan to set up multi-modal logistics hubs in India.
He added that the government should also look to come out with a nationwide policy to promote cargo movement through Indian Railways.
Rishi Agarwal, CEO of Teamlease Regtech, also said that ease of doing business, and regulatory cholesterol alleviation are areas that are integral to any dialogue around faster and cheaper logistic movement in India.
Kanika Tekriwal, Founder and CEO, Jet Set Go, said that government should look to create dedicated cargo airports in India.
She added that India does not have a dedicated airport for cargo movement till now, and a dedicated airport near ports is the need of the hour for the country.
Tekriwal also said that the government should look at policy measures to promote domestic airlines to expand cargo operations in India.
Jaffrey Thomas added that the launch of the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) under the National Logistics Policy was a very positive step towards the integration of government data on a single platform.
He added that soon most organisations in India will start using the ULIP platform for logistics data.