New Delhi, Mar 28 (Agency) Stating that the main challenge in the Indian industry, trade and business is the high cost of logistics, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that government’s aim is to bring down logistics cost at 9 pc by end of 2024. “By the end of 2024, the aim of my ministry is to bring down logistics to a single digit at 9 pc which in turn will help us increase export,” he said while speaking the ASSOCHAM Annual Session 2023.
“To accomplish this, the government is focusing on improving both roadways and railways. We are building green highways and industrial corridor with focus on reducing the distance between major cities and hubs.” Talking about some of the key national highway projects, Gadkari said, “After completion of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway, people can travel between Delhi and Mumbai in just 12 hours; Nagpur to Mumbai in five hours and Nagpur to Pune in six hours. This will help reduce the logistics cost. We are building tunnels in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, and these are going to reduce the distance drastically. For example from Manali to Rohtang pass the travel time used to be 210 minutes and now with Atal Tunnel, one can cross the tunnel in just 45 minutes and reach in eight minutes after coming out of the tunnel.” Discussing about saving fuel cost by focusing on alternative fuel, he said, “Our focus should be on converting waste to wealth. For example, Delhi has three mountains of solid waste. Within next two years this waste will be used in road construction, flattening the waste fields. Delhi NCR also suffers from the problem of rice straw (parli) burning causing high level of pollution. We are focussing on developing outer-outer ring road which passes over 13 railways lines,” he said.
“Roadmap has been prepared to shift wholesale markets and warehouses to designated zones around this ring road. This will decongest Delhi; commercial vehicles will bypass entry into Delhi, reducing pollution problem,” the minister said. He said, “Central Road Research Institute has developed technology to convert rice straw (parli) into bitumen which will be used for road projects. This will not only help reducing pollution but also save on the import cost of bitumen. With the help of technology rice straw (parli) is also being converted in bio ethanol and considered as alternative fuel. Our focus has also shifted towards hydrogen as alternative fuel. There are three types of hydrogen namely brown hydrogen from petroleum, black hydrogen from coal and green hydrogen from water. Indian Chemical Research Institute is already engaged in developing technology to build up biomass, which bio-technologically will yield methane and consequent green hydrogen without using power for electrolysis of water.” “The aim is to reduce the cost of hydrogen as fuel to $1 which in turn will run a vehicle up 450 Kilometres. Green hydrogen is a futuristic fuel and help run transportation and various other industries without power. It can be used in aviation and railways. The problem of power plants producing fly ash solved. Fly ash now being utilized in road construction as mix with bitumen and cement. I personally feel that our priority should be ethics, economy, ecology and environment. So, our focus should be from waste to wealth,” the Minister added.