{"id":230486,"date":"2023-03-10T21:25:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T15:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=230486"},"modified":"2023-03-10T21:25:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T15:55:52","slug":"the-ideal-track-to-run-indias-logistics-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-ideal-track-to-run-indias-logistics-system\/","title":{"rendered":"The ideal track to run India\u2019s logistics system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cThe ideal track to run India\u2019s logistics system<\/strong>\u201d published in The Hindu<\/strong> on\u00a010th<\/sup> March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>concerns associated with the railway\u2019s logistics services<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The Union Budget 2023 has doubled the PM Gati Shakti National Master<\/strong> Plan to States from \u20b95,000 crore to \u20b910,000 crore, and has announced an outlay of \u20b92.4 lakh crore for the Indian Railways.<\/p>\n

This will help Railways to play an important role in enabling a coordinated and integrated logistics system.<\/p>\n

What is the preferable mode of logistic transport in India at the present?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At present, 65% of freight movement is done by road transport<\/strong> due to the convenience roads offer for logistic movements.<\/p>\n

However, this has also increased the burden on roads with increased pollution and high logistic costs (almost twice that of railways).<\/p>\n

Therefore, it is necessary to adopt railways as a mode for cargo movement. This will improve India\u2019s logistics competitiveness.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

How are the Indian Railways\u2019 logistics services compared with the world?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Globally, countries are heavily investing in advanced rail infrastructure for quick and low-cost container movement.<\/p>\n

For example,<\/strong> China uses special trains to carry containers that connect significant ports and has dedicated rail lines to move container traffic and planned double-decker container carriages for greater efficiency.<\/p>\n

The Indian Railways are also upgrading their infrastructure through the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan<\/strong>. However, these are significantly lower than other countries such as the United States and China.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the problems faced by the Railways in its freight services?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First,<\/strong> the increased transit time by rail and pre-movement and post-movement procedural delays freight movement by rail.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> the railways also lack necessary terminal infrastructure, maintenance of good sheds and warehouses, and uncertain supply of wagons.<\/p>\n

Third,<\/strong> the absence of integrated first and last-mile connectivity<\/strong> by rail increases the chances of damage due to multiple handling and also increases the inventory holding cost.<\/p>\n

What can be done to improve freight service by the Railways?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First,<\/strong> it needs to improve infrastructure with proper policy tools.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> private participation in the operation and management of terminals, containers, and warehouses can be encouraged.<\/p>\n

Third,<\/strong> a special entity can be established under the railways to handle intermodal logistics in partnership with the private sector. This will help in addressing the first and last-mile issue faced by the railways.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The entity could function as a single window for customers for cargo movement and payment transactions.<\/p>\n

Fourth, <\/strong>the railways can introduce an Uber-like model<\/strong> for one of the two cargo wagons, attached to each passenger train. This will enable customers to book the wagon using an online application.<\/p>\n

This could directly increase freight traffic without any additional investment in infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cThe ideal track to run India\u2019s logistics system\u201d published in The Hindu on\u00a010th March 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Infrastructure Relevance: concerns associated with the railway\u2019s logistics services News: The Union Budget 2023 has doubled the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan to States from \u20b95,000 crore to… Continue reading The ideal track to run India\u2019s logistics system<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-230486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}