Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Logistics Policy (NLP) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on Saturday, and said that National Logistics Policy is a comprehensive effort to enhance efficiency of the logistics ecosystem in India.
Calling it a significant step in fulfilling the ‘Pran’ of India being a developed country, Modi said at the launch: “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”.
Referring to this morning's release of Cheetah, the Prime Minister said we all want that luggage should move quickly like a cheetah.
“The echo of Make in India and India becoming self-reliant is everywhere. India is setting big export targets and is also fulfilling them. The notion that India is emerging as a manufacturing hub, is stabilizing in the mind of the world. If we study the PLI scheme we will find that the world has accepted it,” he said.
Emphasising that the National Logistics Policy will bring new energy to all sectors, Modi said that the policy is a beginning and policy plus performance is equal to progress. When parameters, roadmap and timeline for performance come together then policy plus performance equal to progress emerges.
“Today’s India prepares the ground before bringing any policy, only then a policy can be implemented successfully. National Logistics Policy has not come out of the blue and there are 8 years of hard work behind it. There are policy changes, major decisions, and, if I talk about myself, it has my 22 years of governance experience behind it,” he said.
Modi reiterated that schemes like Sagarmala, Bharatmala, expedited the work of Dedicated Freight Corridors to improve logistics connectivity for systematic infrastructure development. 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, he said.
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.
“Through waterways, we can do eco-friendly and cost-effective transportation, for this many new waterways are also being built in the country,” he said, adding that “today 60 airports have the facility of Krishi Udan”.
Stressing the need to adopt technology to strengthen the logistic sector, the Prime Minister said that Unified Logistics Interface Platform ULIP will bring all the digital services related to the transportation sector into a single portal. Under the policy, a new digital platform Ease of logistics Services -E-Logs has also been started, he said.
“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 National Logistics Policy in all earnest.
“A huge data of information related to different infrastructure projects of state governments has been prepared. Today, data from the central and state governments in about 1500 layers are coming on the PM Gatishakti portal… Gatishakti and National Logistics Policy together are now taking the country towards a new work culture. The talent that will come out of the recently approved Gatishakti University will also help it a lot,” he added.
The Prime Minister underlined that for the products manufactured in India to dominate the world market, it is crucial to have a strong support system. “The National Logistics Policy will greatly help us modernize this support system”, he said.
“The National Logistics Policy has immense potential for the development of infrastructure, for expansion of business and increasing employment opportunities. We have to realize these possibilities together” the Prime Minister added.
Representatives of Logistics sector, R Dinesh, Managing Director, TVS Supply Chain Solutions; Ramesh Aggrawal, CEO, Agarwal Packers and Movers; Amitabh Saha, Founder and CEO of XpressBees Logistics also spoke on the occasion.
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Road, Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyodiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnav, Union Minister of Port, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbanada Sonowal, Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Som Prakash were also present at the occasion, a PIB release stated.
