CARGOCONNECT-MAY23 - Flipbook - Page 8
FRONTLINE
NARENDRA MODI
Prime Minister of India
NITIN GADKARI
Union Minister for Road
Transport and Highways
SARBANANDA
SONOWAL
Union Minister for Ports,
Shipping and Waterways
TIM COOK
CEO, Apple
The new India of the 21st century is rapidly
building modern infrastructure in every
corner of the country. In this year’s budget
`10 lakh crore has been allocated for modern
infra. In Telangana, the railway budget has
been increased by almost 17 times in the last
9 years. Be it the work of laying new railway
lines, the work of doubling of railway lines, or
the work of electrification, everything has
been done at a record speed. Telangana is
also getting the benefit of the efforts to
modernise major railway stations across the
country. Besides that, the network of
highways in Telangana is also being
developed at a rapid pace and today the
length of National Highways in Telangana
has increased to 5000 kms.
The four-laning work on Mumbai-Goa
highway will be completed by December 2023.
The highway touches 66 tourism spots in
Maharashtra’s Konkan area and will hugely
boost development prospects. It will also
ensure quick transportation of fruits and other
produce the region is famous for. Several works
in the state’s Konkan region were held up due to
issues like land acquisition, permissions, and
contractor problems. All matters are resolved
now and the highway, which also connects
JNPT and Dighi port, will help in the progress of
the country. We are also considering a `13,000
crore Morbe-Karanjade road project that will
pass through the JNP. Work on `1,200 crore
Kalamboli Junction and `1,147 crore
Pagote Junction will start soon.
Under the Sagarmala Programme, 70 projects
worth `2,856 crore have been sanctioned for the
development of coastal berths, roll-on, roll-off,
passenger jetties, etc. out of which 15 projects
worth `849 crore have been completed. Various
initiatives and projects have been undertaken to
facilitate shifting of cargo from conventional
land-based transportation to coastal shipping
mode. A discount of 40 per cent is offered by
major ports on vessels and cargo related
charges to coastal cargo vessels. Green channel
clearance was introduced for faster evacuation
of coastal cargo at ports. The projects for
improvement in the first and last-mile road and
rail connectivity with all the major and
non-major ports have also been identified
for faster cargo movement.
India over time will be one of Apple’s
largest markets. I think it has that kind of
potential. I am making the point that the
country’s GDP is going to have an extraordinary run ahead of it. India’s journey is clear to
me, and it would be an extraordinary journey
— whether you measure things in GDP, or
however you want to measure things. The
scale will be enormous. It’s been great to
spend time with developers here in India! It’s
such a vibrant developer community. To
support them, we created our App Design and
Development Accelerator in Bengaluru in
2017. The iOS app economy in India now
supports more than 1 million jobs, which is a
testament to the tremendous growth of
the developer community.
8 | CARGOCONNECT MAY 2023
PIYUSH GOYAL
Union Minister for Commerce
and Industry
JYOTIRADITYA
SCINDIA
Union Minister for Civil Aviation
SUMITA DAWRA
Special Secretary (Logistics),
Department for Promotion of
Industry and Internal Trade
(DPIIT)
ANSHUMAN
MAGAZINE
Chairman and CEO – India,
Southeast Asia, Middle East
and Africa, CBRE
India will become the third-largest
economy by 2027-28. Now we are the 5th
largest economy. India is a 3.5 trillion-dollar
economy today and will become a 30-35
dollar trillion economy by 2047 when we
celebrate 100 years of independence. India
offers an oasis of opportunity with 1.4 Billion
people aspiring for a better quality of life,
aspiring for good things. We are today
emerging as the go-to country, as the world’s
pharmacy, as the world’s food bowl and as a
trusted partner to other countries. Exports
were US$676 billion last year. We had a target
to reflect the sentiment of young and
enthusiastic Indians. In the 75th Year of
Independence, we crossed US$750 billion
in exports.
As many as 473 new routes have been
operationalised under the UDAN scheme
launched by the Centre to boost air connectivity
in tier II and III cities. In terms of airport, Salem
airport has been operationalised (in Tamil
Nadu). Vellore will be operational in the next
couple of months. Fourteen routes of UDAN will
be coming up in Tamil Nadu. Times are
changing and with newfound growth, Chennai
emerges as one of the biggest gateways of the
country and is the third largest airport of India
with 43 domestic and 24 international
connections. The new integrated building at the
airport stands as a ‘testament’. The new
terminal has 60 per cent of energy contributed
from renewable sources and also has
multimodal connectivity.
We are aiming to get a clear picture of the
country’s logistics costs. The task force will
give its report in two months’ time...in about
four months; we should have an estimate. In two
months, we would get the framework and it
would take another two months for the
calculations. We have recognised the fact that
we need more clarity on what are the
components that will go into the logistics costs
calculation. At present, there are variations in
estimates within the country. So, we are hoping
that in two months’ time, the task force will give
us the components which go into the logistics
costs calculation, and then we will be able to
take a view on how we go ahead with respect
to improving those parameters and
calculating the actual cost.
The government’s strong CAPEX
programme, with a focus on infrastructure
development and capacity building across
sectors, is aimed at driving investment. As the
second-largest employment generator in
India, the real-estate sector will continue to
be a focus area for these investments. The
industrial and logistics (I&L) sector occupiers
are likely to move towards achieving
operational efficiencies and rationalise cost in
a multi-user facility, and this is expected to
push the take-up of large-sized spaces
hereon. Omnichannel retail, along with the
need for urban fulfilment centres would drive
leasing by retail and FMCG firms.