Bhoomika Singh
On his 72nd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the much-awaited, National Logistics Policy 2022, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on September 17, 2022. At the launch event, PM mentioned that the need for a national policy was felt since the logistics cost in India is high compared to other developed economies.
“To ensure quick last-mile delivery, end transport-related challenges, save time and money of the manufacturers, prevent wastage of the agro-products, concerted efforts were made and one of the manifestations of those efforts is today’s National Logistics Policy”, the PM said. The resulting improvement in coordination will lead to the desired speed in the sector.
“NLP will bring new energy to all sectors,” he said. When parameters, roadmap and timeline for performance come together then policy plus performance equal to progress emerges, he elaborated. NLP has not come out of the blue and there are 8 years of hard work behind it.
PM reiterated that schemes like Sagarmala, and Bharatmala, expedited the work of Dedicated Freight Corridors to improve logistics connectivity and pointed out that the total capacity of Indian ports has increased significantly, and the average turn-around time of container vessels has come down from 44 hours to 26 hours. For promoting export, 40 air cargo terminals have been constructed. 30 airports have been provided cold-storage facilities. 35 multimodal hubs are coming up in the country. Today 60 airports have the facility of Krishi Udan.
“From 13-14 per cent logistics cost, we should all aim to bring it to single-digit as soon as possible. This, in a way, is low-hanging fruit, if we must become globally competitive”, Modi emphasised.
During the launch, the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) was launched which will bring all the digital services related to the transportation sector into a single portal, freeing the exporters from a host of very long and cumbersome processes.
Similarly, under the policy, a new digital platform Ease of logistics Services (E-Logs) has also been started. “Through this portal, industry associations can directly take up any such matters which are causing problems in their operations and performance with the government agencies. A complete system has also been put in place for the speedy resolution of such cases”, he said.
Modi pointed out that the PM Gatishakti National Master Plan will be supporting the NLP in all earnest. “Gatishakti and National Logistics Policy together are now taking the country towards a new work culture.
What does NLP bring?
- Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP): will bring all the digital services related to the transportation sector into a single portal.
- Ease of Logistic Services (E-Logs): industry associations can directly take up any such matters which are causing problems in their operations.
- Integration of Digital System (IDS): will integrate 30 different systems of seven different departments, which are road transport, railway, customs, aviation, foreign trade, and commerce ministries.
- System Improvement Group (SIG): will be used to monitor all logistics-related projects regularly and will facilitate the removal of any hurdle.
Experts are saying…
Welcoming the NLP, the Co-founder and CEO of Porter, Pranav Goel said, “The policy is holistic and covers all bases of the sector along with streamlining rules and addressing supply-side constraints. The major benefit to organisations like ours will be from the Digital Integration System for logistics ecosystems. This will lead to seamless and faster workflow, making logistics significantly efficient.”
Goel added, “Additionally, the Sagarmala project will help in developing a low-cost Multi-modal logistics segment in India. With digitization at the centre of innovation, the policy will expedite last-mile delivery, helping businesses save time and money.”
“The policy promises to create positive changes in our logistics infrastructure, and reduce the cost of doing business globally, thereby paving a stronger way for India to become a global manufacturing hub and Aatmanirbhar. The policy will also aid 22 million people in furthering the goal of inclusive growth, he signs off.
Also Read: Icra expects enhanced budgetary support for waterways, logistics sectors in budget FY23
Weighing in, “NLP will reduce our dependence upon road transport and will integrate the air, road, and water mode of transport to reduce the cost of logistics in India considerably and to make our domestic trade and international trade more economical eventually, said Sandeep Wadhwa, Chairman, Logistics Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Reacting to the new policy, Ashish Mohan Wig, Chairman, Gati Shakti Development Forum, PHDCCI, said, “Releasing Cheetah in the morning and releasing the NLP in the evening can be indicative of how the nation wants logistics to move – at cheetah speed with the integration of different modes of transport.”
