Coal ministry developing logistics policy, national coal evacuation plan

The coal ministry is developing a logistics policy for the sector and a national coal evacuation plan with a view to reducing logistics costs, an official statement said on Saturday.

An inter-ministerial meeting on logistics was held to review the progress of implementation of the National Logistics Policy, the statement said, adding that it was convened by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). During the meeting measures taken by different ministries to improve logistics efficiency in the country were also showcased.

"A draft coal logistic policy and national coal evacuation plan has been developed by the ministry of coal. In addition, standardisation of physical assets (heavy earth moving machines for coal handling) and setting up benchmarks for quality management, is under progress," the statement said.

DPIIT Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh talked about the critical role played by ports in making India a globally competitive export destination and suggested greater adoption of initiatives like the Logistics Data Bank (LDB) to draw learnings for improving logistics performance across various metrics.

It was also highlighted that for making India's domestically manufactured goods globally competitive, and for achieving the $2.5 trillion EXIM (export-import) target by 2030, it is imperative to have an efficient logistics ecosystem. To bring a holistic focus on logistics in public policy at the state level, states/UTs are developing State Logistics Plans (SLPs). So far, 21 states have notified their respective logistics policies.

The DPIIT further added that it has initiated an endeavour to estimate logistics cost, since no official estimates are available and they vary from 8-14% of GDP. "Hence a need was felt for developing accurate estimates based on holistic data and relevant statistical models. For this, a survey-based logistics cost calculation framework is being developed and a short-term baseline estimate for logistics cost is soon to be unveiled," it added.

For tracking and tracing 100% of India's containerised EXIM cargo, the LDB has been developed. The supply chain visibility platform has contributed to reducing India's average dwell time to just 2.6 days and improved logistics efficiency.

"For improving India's ranking in LPI and achieving the NLP target of top 25 nations in the world, all stakeholder ministries were requested to set up a dedicated cell for undertaking a strategic approach to improving performance across all six parameters of the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and the overall ranking, thereof," it added.

Officials from CBIC highlighted measures taken for promoting trade facilitation at ports.

Efforts are being made towards establishing an integrated laboratory network, promoting risk management systems for consignment screening, and standardisation of processes across ports for examination of cargo, among others, are in place, it said.