New Delhi: The National Highways Logistics Management Limited (NHLML) on Wednesday signed a tripartite agreement with Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) for speedy development of multi-modal logistics parks (MMPL) under Bharatmala Pariyojna across the country.
The agreement was signed in presence of Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping Sarbananda Sonowal and junior MORTH Minister VK Singh.
The main objective of the agreement is to centralize freight consolidation and reduce logistics cost from 14% to less than 10% of GDP at par with international standards.
Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said the signing of memorandum of understanding would provide seamless modal shift and ensure that MMLPs will arrange quicker cargo swapping/shifting from and to waterways, dedicated freight corridors & road transport. “It will help in the nation building under the Gati Shakti programme,” added Gadkari.
Sonowal said it was a historic occasion when the government is putting letter & spirit of Bharatmala Pariyojana into effect for a swift, efficient, economical and environment friendly logistics movement across the country. “The move would empower and energise the economies of scale via PM Gati Shakti,” added Sonowal.
This agreement is an earnest attempt towards realisation of this objective. “The country will be immensely benefit with the coming up of such efficient stations. MMLPs are designed to untie the cobweb of logistics movement and enliven the logistics sector to put the economy into the fast lane of growth,” added Sonowal further.
MMLP will be a freight handling facility with rail and road accessibility, comprising of container terminals, cargo terminals (bulk, break-bulk), warehouses, cold storage, facilities for mechanised material handling and value-added services such as customs clearance with bonded storage yards, quarantine zones, testing facilities and warehousing management services etc. along with other associated facilities. Developed under a ‘Hub & Spoke’ model, the MMLP will integrate multiple modes of freight transport through highways, railways & inland waterways. The agreement underlines the cooperation & collaboration model between the three bodies in order to achieve efficiency in logistics movement within the country.
Also Read: NICDC officials visit Gaya, discuss plans to build industrial park & dry port
The MMLP project is poised to develop state-of-the-art large scale warehousing facility for different types of commodities, to become one stop solution for all services related to cargo movement like warehousing, custom clearance, parking, maintenance of trucks etc. The MMLPs will focus on a technology driven implementation for a state-of-the-art freight management system. Many value added services like packaging, repackaging and labelling will be available in these projects.
The NHLML is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) of MoRTH, while IWAI is a statutory authority under Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways. The RVNL is a wholly owned public sector enterprise (PSE) under Ministry of Railways. The signatories of the agreement were Prakash Gaur, chief executive officer (CEO), NHLML; Ravi Kant, chief engineer & project manager for IWAI and Vikas Awasthi, executive director (planning), RVNL.
