34 MoUs signed during Integrated Transport & Logistics Summit
The World Bank has emphasized on physical planning, adequate institutions and governance, and apt policy instruments as key enablers for development and management of economic corridors in India.
Jose Luis Irigoyen, Senior Director, World Bank Transport & ICT Group, also highlighted areas in the corridor development program where World Bank could add value.
He was speaking at during the India Integrated Transport & Logistics Summit which ended in New Delhi on 5 May 2017.
Meanwhile, 34 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) amounting to about Rs 2 lakh crores were signed in the three-day Summit.
The MoUs were in the areas of port connectivity, Integrated Check Posts (ICP) in the states of Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Manipur, access to land port in Tripura, Assam and Mizoram, development of Logistics Parks in Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Mizoram, development and furthering of multi modal logistics parks in Mumbai and Bengaluru and Haryana.
The MoUs call for exploring investment opportunities in logistics sector, dredging of inland waterways, implementation of 79 port connectivity projects under Sagarmala, development of port roads to Chennai and Vishakhapatnam ports, and connectivity to airport in Navi Mumbai, among others.
Some of these MoUs are between Government agencies while others are between Government to Business and Business to Business.
The Summit was attended by around 3,000 delegates from India and abroad, which included central and state government organizations , international organizations like World Bank and ADB, delegates, global transport and supply chain experts and representatives of private companies.
The sessions focused on six major themes — Multi Modal Logistics Parks, New developments in Urban Transportation, Freight Corridors for Economic Development, Supply Chain Transformation – Storage Innovations, GST and Role of Digitization for Decongestion and Standards and Skills for Logistics.
Speaking at the concluding session of the summit, the Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said that there is an urgent need to bring down logistics cost in the country to globally comparable rates if we hope to achieve double digit growth figures and ensure the welfare of the weakest sections of society.
Gadkari said that the summit is a very welcome, first step towards realizing this objective. fii-news.com
