Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented a growth-oriented Union Budget 2022-23 today, which focused on 4 pillars – productivity, climate action, financing investments and PM Gati Shakti plan. The fourth pillar – PM Gati Shakti, has some positive announcements for the logistics sector, the sector whose growth is critically linked to the growth of trade and economic activities in the country.

Under PM Gati Shakti, 100 cargo terminals will be developed over the next three years. “Budget has steps to boost transport and logistics and ‘Gati Shakti’ master plan for expressways will be formulated this financial year,” the minister said, adding, “We will expand highways by 25,000 km in FY23.” Sitharaman said the data exchange among all mode operators will be brought on Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), designed for Application Programming Interface (API). This will provide for efficient movement of goods through different modes, reducing logistics cost and time, assisting just-in-time inventory management, and in eliminating tedious documentation. Most importantly, this will provide real time information to all stakeholders, and improve international competitiveness. Contracts for implementation of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations through PPP mode will be awarded in 2022-23.

Infrastructure is one of the key components in the Indian logistics industry. By increasing infrastructural investments, the logistics and transport sector will see drastic growth, allowing for everything from intercity to intracity goods transport to become seamless.