Sarbananda Sonowal, the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, inaugurated the National Logistics Portal (Marine) on 27th Janurary, 2023, which is a single window portal with an objective to reduce the logistics cost. The implementation of this policy was initiated in July of 2021 along with the development of NPL Marine as a first phase.
As per an official statement, the NPL will be the single window for all trade processes of the logistics sector spread across India covering all modes of transport in waterways, roadways and airways along with an e-marketplace in order to provide a seamless end-to-end logistics service coverage. It is an open platform that allows the coexistence of multiple service providers of EXIM related services independently or by combining differing connectivity options. The activities of NLP Marine are categorised into four distinct verticals – carrier, cargo, banking and finance and regulatory bodies, and participating government agencies (PGAs).