Time to reduce logistics cost by 5% over next 5 years: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

The inputs given by the Logistics Ease Across Different States Report 2021 can lead the way to bring down logistics cost by 5 percent over the next 5 years, said Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal on Monday.

Addressing the gathering after the release of the LEADS Report, Goyal said that India is committed to build modern infrastructure for the 21st century, at a pace never seen before.

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

Referring to the recently launched PM GatiShakti Master Plan, he said that it would revolutionise the next generation of multimodal infrastructure development in the country.

The Minister said that the initiatives taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat for 13 years had laid the foundation for Gujarat to consistently stay at the top of the chart in LEADS report.

He said that the speed of highway construction has increased 3 fold from 12 km/day in 2013-14 to 37 km/day in 2020-21 and that there was a four fold increase in Railways Capex from Rs 54,000 Cr in 2013-14 to Rs 2.15 Lakh Cr in 2021-22.

He observed that in the 5 years before 2014, only 60 panchayats could be connected with optical fiber and that In last 7 years, more than 1.5 lakh gram panchayats connected with optical fibre.

He also observed that logistics contributed immensely in fight against COVID-19 by taking essential supplies including liquid Medical Oxygen throughout the country during the 2nd wave.

Observing that logistics is an enabler of multiple visions- From Make in India for the World to Last Mile Delivery, the Minister said that to achieve ambitious targets we cannot afford to walk but we need expressways of Land, Air and Water.

He named Infrastructure, Quality Services and Conducive Regulatory Framework as the three pillars of Resilient logistics.

"Rather than just absolute improvement in one State, improvement of logistics across all States, will be a force multiplier for the entire logistics ecosystem", Goyal said.

He lauded Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab for having acquired the top 3 positions respectively. Goyal also congratulated the Uttar Pradesh for leapfrogging 7 ranks since 2019, highest among all states, driven by policy initiatives, higher infra spending in logistics.

Minister said that since its inception in 2018, each year LEADS report has followed a progressive methodology to provide a granular insight on the logistics performance at State/UTs level. "LEADS 2021 has gone 2-step ahead in analysis of domestic and EXIM logistics ecosystem of the state" he added.

Within the North Eastern States and Himalayan Region, Jammu and Kashmir is the top ranker followed by Sikkim and Meghalaya. Delhi stands at the top rank among Other UTs. Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have witnessed a remarkable improvement in their ranks compared to 2019 LEADS ranking and have emerged as the top improvers.