Date: 11/03/2023

Relevance: GS-3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment

Key Phrases: PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan to States, Oversaturated Line Capacity Intermodal Logistics, Continuous Monitoring Of Existing Projects, Integrated Logistics Infrastructure, National Infrastructure Pipeline, Gati Shakti Digital Platform

Why in News?

• The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan to States has been increased from 5,000 to 10,000 crore in the Union Budget 2023, while an allocation of 2.4 lakh crore has been announced for the Indian Railways.

Key Highlights:

• The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan is a “transformative approach for economic growth and sustainable development dependent on the engines of roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infrastructure”.
• The Railways offer an efficient and economic mode of logistics movement given their pan-India network, and can play an important role in enabling a coordinated and integrated logistics system.
• With a target of increasing the share of the railways in freight movement from 27% to 45% and increasing freight movement from 1.2 billion tonnes to 3.3 billion tonnes, by 2030, PM Gati Shakti provides the right platform to address the infrastructural challenges that have hampered the movement of freight by rail.

PM Gati Shakti Plan, 2021:

• Aim:
  • To ensure integrated planning and implementation of infrastructure projects with focus on expediting works on the ground, saving costs and creating jobs.
• Key Focus:
  • It will subsume the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline that was launched in 2019.
  • It also aims to have 11 industrial corridors and two new defense corridors - one in Tamil Nadu and other in Uttar Pradesh.
  • Extending 4G connectivity to all villages and adding 17,000 kms to the gas pipeline network is being planned.
  • It will help the government in expanding the length of the national highway network to 2 lakh kms, creation of more than 200 new airports, heliports and water aerodromes by 2024-25.
• Integrated Approach:
  • It intends to bring together 16 infrastructure related Ministries.
  • It will lead to removing long-standing issues such as disjointed planning, lack of standardization, problems with clearances, and timely creation and utilization of infrastructure capacities.
• Gati Shakti Digital Platform:
  • It involves the creation of a common umbrella platform through which infrastructure projects can be planned and implemented in an efficacious manner by way of coordination between various ministries/departments on a real-time basis.

Modal Mix In India:

• Currently, the modal mix in terms of freight movement is skewed by a considerable extent towards road transport, with 65% of freight movement by road.
• The outcome is more traffic on the roadways, which causes severe congestion, more pollution, and rising logistics costs.
• To strengthen India's logistics competitiveness, the railways must be used more frequently as a means of moving cargo.
• The cost of moving freight by road is far higher than that of moving it by rail but since road travel is more convenient than it is expensive, India's railways have been losing out on freight to other more adaptable and flexible modes of transportation.

Advanced Rail Infrastructure For Efficient Container Traffic:

• The convenience of moving non-bulk commodities in containers has led to an increase in containerised traffic over the last decade, growing from 7.6 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU)s in 2008 to 16.2 million TEUs in 2020. TEU is a unit of cargo capacity.
• Globally, railway systems are heavily investing in advanced rail infrastructure for quick and low-cost container movement.
• For example, China uses special trains to carry containers that connect significant ports to the inland, and has dedicated rail lines to move container traffic and planned double-decker container carriages for greater efficiency.

Status In India:

• In 2020-21, coal constituted 44% of the total freight movement of 1.2 billion tonnes, followed by iron ore (13%), cement (10%), food grains (5%), fertilizers (4%), iron and steel (4%), etc. Transportation of non-bulk commodities accounts for a very small share in the rail freight movement.

Challenges Faced By Rail Infrastructure In India:

• The national transport system in India faces several infrastructural, operational and connectivity challenges in turn leading to a shift of freight traffic to roads.
  • Operational Challenges: The increased transit time by rail and pre-movement and post-movement procedural delays such as wagon placement, loading and unloading operations, multi-modal handling, etc., hamper freight movement by rail.
  • Infrastructural Challenges: The lack of necessary terminal infrastructure, maintenance of good sheds and warehouses, and uncertain supply of wagons are some of the infrastructural challenges that customers face. This results in high network congestion, lower service levels, and increased transit time.
  • Connectivity Challenges: The absence of integrated first and last-mile connectivity by rail increases the chances of damage due to multiple handling and also increases the inventory holding cost.

Need For A Special Entity:

• The upcoming Dedicated Freight Corridors along India’s eastern and western corridors and multimodal logistics parks will ease the oversaturated line capacity constraints and improve the timing of trains.
• The Indian Railways need to improve infrastructure that is backed by adequate policy tools and also encourage private participation in the operation and management of terminals, containers, and warehouses to efficiently utilise resources.
• Establishing a special entity under the railways to handle intermodal logistics in partnership with the private sector will help in addressing the first and last-mile issues faced by the railways.
• The entity could function as a single window for customers for cargo movement and payment transactions

Increasing the utilisation rate of cargo weapons:

• There are two cargo wagons in each passenger train. Based on industry recommendations, introduction of an Uber-like model for one of the two cargo wagons, wherein the customer can book the wagon using an online application, could help in increasing the utilisation rate of these wagons.
• The Indian Railways may keep operating the other wagon, the way it is done currently, until the success of the proposed model is established.
• This could directly increase freight traffic without any additional investment in infrastructure.

Conclusion:

• While the Indian Railways are upgrading their infrastructure (PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan), a continuous monitoring of existing projects along with identification of new priority areas will help in achieving the targets of rail freight movement.
• An integrated logistics infrastructure with first and last-mile connectivity is essential to make rail movement competitive with roads, and facilitate exports by rail to neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. An integrated logistics infrastructure with first and last-mile connectivity is essential to make rail movement competitive with roads, and facilitate exports by rail to neighbouring countries. Examine. (250 words).