National master plan for multi-modal connectivity soon: DPIIT Secy

New Delhi: The government is expected to announce soon a national master plan for providing multi-modal connectivity across the country with a view to reducing logistics cost and time, a top official said on Monday.

The Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra said that all the infrastructure-related ministries including civil aviation, shipping, and railways have been given a timeline that by 2024, multi-modal connectivity of real global quality will be provided to various production centres in the country.

The proposal will go to the Cabinet and once it is approved, definite timelines will be given to infrastructure ministries for the plan. "We all are aware that India needs to do a lot for improving logistics in the country. One major initiative that is expected to be announced by the government soon is a national master plan for providing multi-modal connectivity across the country wherever any economic activity is happening, could be an industrial cluster or industrial park," he said at the CII's MNC conference.

He added that the logistics division under the Department of Commerce is also working on a policy, wherein defined activities have been identified to reduce logistics cost and time. "I am sure that with these initiatives, the industry will see a lot of improvement in the logistics sector," Mohapatra said.

He also said that the department is working with the industry to identify particular activities of government which add to the compliance burden and in a definite time frame, "we are addressing those issues". He expressed hope that more and more compliance burden for the industry would be reduced in the next few months. About the ongoing work on setting up of a single-window system for faster approvals and clearances both at centre and state level, the secretary said it is expected to be put in place by March-end.

It will help investors in getting information of the status of approvals and faster clearances. When asked about the vehicle scrapping policy, he said it is under consideration of the Ministry of Road Transport. "Whether the customer needs to be incentivised, that is the larger issue which the ministry is working on with stakeholders and I expect that once that is resolved, there should not be any problem in approving this policy," he added.