CARGOCONNECT NOVEMBER 2022 - Flipbook - Page 59
AUTO LOGISTICS : FEATURE
Despite the global supply shocks owing to the
COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine war, global EV
sales have recorded double digit growth and will
continue to surge in years to come. Etrio is one
such example of a tech-driven EV-maker that has
designed its products to address the last-mile
applications of our customers in e-commerce,
logistics, FMCG, farm-to-fork, waste management,
and other retail applications.
KALYAN C KORIMERLA
Managing Director and Co-promoter,
Etrio
market is expected to become more distributed,
thereby increasing demand for logistics.”
Meanwhile, Thomas agrees that growing no. of
models and sizes have made automotive logistics
complex. Growing environmental concerns have
made industry look for cleaner modes of transportation such as rail and waterways.
Now, while these can turn into opportunities
through proper measures, logistics service providers
face innumerable challenges due to the lack of multimodal connectivity, railway terminal infrastructure,
auto rake availability, longer transit times and low
return load availability- all of which significantly
drain the pockets of the logistics companies.
Thomas adds, “Firstly, roads hold approximately 95 per cent share in transportation of finished
vehicles; approximately 85 per cent for passenger
vehicles. Road has a dominant presence even in long
lead transportation, despite unfavourable cost and
carbon emission over other modes. Secondly, lack of
adequate infrastructure at railway terminals at
origin and destination points for handling and parking of vehicles, such as congested access roads,
number of rail sidings, segregated and clean parking
yards etc. Thirdly, transit time on rail is significantly high due to over utilised track capacity on IR’s
network and inefficient first- and last-mile operations.
Lower average speed on road compared to developed
countries due to lack of modern and access controlled
highways. And, last but not the least, due to geographically concentrated production clusters, specialised fleet/wagon design and lack of aggregation
facilities, availability of return load in most of the
geographies is difficult. This results in empty running
and poor utilisation of assets.”
MMLPS ALL SET TO STRENGTHEN
CONNECTIVITY
The government policies like Logistics Efficiency
Enhancement Programme (LEEP) and PM Gati
Shakti Master Plan aim to improve intermodal
movement by developing Multimodal Logistics Park
(MMLP) infrastructure. 33 MMLPs are proposed
in Phase 1 and it will be followed by 11 MMLPs in
Phase 2. Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC)
and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC)
along with their feeder routes are expected to be
operational between FY24 and FY28. Besides these
infrastructural developments, all of the 22 announced
expressway projects are expected to be ready by
2025. Soon the number of MMLPs will escalate to
a solid 70.
MMLPs can address key challenges in automotive
logistics through access to efficient infrastructure and
services. The comfort in automotive supply chain
bestowed by such developments can be attributed to:
Western
Dedicated
Freight Corridor
(WDFC) and
Eastern
Dedicated
Freight Corridor
(EDFC) along
with their
feeder routes
are expected to
be operational
between FY24
and FY28.
Besides these
infrastructural
developments,
all of the 22
announced
expressway
projects are
expected to
be ready by
2025. Soon
the number
of MMLPs will
escalate to a
solid 70. MMLPs
can address
key challenges
in automotive
logistics
through access
to efficient
infrastructure
and services.
* Adequate and customised infrastructure
capacity for auto logistics, e.g. wide access
roads, adequate no. of rail sidings, carrier
parking space, segregated finished vehicle
CARGOCONNECT NOVEMBER 2022 | 59
