Commerce Ministry’s Logistics Division unveils plans for ‘Freight Smart Cities’

Source: PIB

What is the News?

The Logistics Division under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry has released the roadmap for the ‘Freight Smart Cities Initiative’.

About ‘Freight Smart Cities Initiative’:

• Freight Smart Cities Initiative aims to improve the efficiency of urban freight and create an opportunity for a reduction in logistics costs.
• Under the initiative, State Governments will identify ten cities, initially, to be developed as Freight Smart Cities.
• In these ten cities, city-level logistics committees would be formed. These committees would have members from the government as well as from the private sector.
• These committees would co-create City Logistics Plans like developing peri-urban freight centres, night-time deliveries, developing truck routes, Promoting electrification of urban freight among others.
• Further, the initiative will be expanded to 75 cities in the next phase before scaling up throughout the country. It will include all state capitals and cities that have more than one million population.

What was the need for this initiative?

• Due to urbanisation, requirements of rapid economic growth including e-commerce and associated first and last-mile freight movements are increasing.
• It is expected that the demand for urban freight is expected to grow by 140% over the next 10 years.
• However, increasing congestion, high logistics cost, noise, and sound pollution in the Indian cities are affecting the urban freight sector.
• Hence, the initiative has been launched to improve the efficiency of urban freight and create an opportunity for a reduction in logistics costs.