Centre may frame five-year integrated transport plans under new body

The new authority will shift India's transport strategy from individual project planning to long-term integrated corridor development aligned with economic goals

With a proposed authority for integrated planning of transport corridors and networks in India, the central government is likely to move from an individual project-based approach to five-year and ten-year integrated transport plans, a senior government official said.

 

“The proposal is in deliberation stages and ministries have given their go-ahead. Under the framework, the decision-making and integrated planning for short term and medium term are likely to happen at the cabinet secretariat level,” the official added.

 

With the proposed authority, the Network Planning Group under the Prime Minister GatiShakti Master Plan framework would no longer be required as all planning will happen at the cabinet secretary level.

 

“While the GatiShakti framework looks at all infrastructure, a need was felt that there has to be a national thrust on dedicated transport planning based on larger economic goals,” a second official said.

 

Officials believe that the new authority can have a meaningful impact on not just the speed of execution, but decisions on which mode of transport would be best suited for a particular node or region, based on past trends and the larger plan of intra and interstate connectivity. “Once a plan is set for five years or ten years, all ministries will work in an integrated manner, strictly in accordance with the plan,” the official said.

 

The framework may not lead to a further level of appraisal and sanctioning on an individual project basis, as the idea is to streamline work for all individual ministries, and not add another layer of red tape.

 

India’s logistics cost, while steadily declining, continues to have bottlenecks due to fragmented modal connectivity. These costs were estimated at 7.97 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023-24 (FY24) at over ~24 trillion, according to a study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) for the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

 

With a view to making exports more competitive, the government aims to provide seamless connectivity between manufacturing centres across the country and its coasts. Moreover, the new authority will also look at solving existing bottlenecks between ports, manufacturing centres, and high-density consumption centres.