Cabinet approves new authority to integrate India’s transport, logistics planning

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved setting up the Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA), a Special Purpose Vehicle aimed at bringing greater coordination to transport and logistics planning, project appraisal, monitoring and impact assessment across multiple ministries and agencies.

The authority will serve as an apex body for integrated transport and logistics planning, research, project appraisal, policy support and data analytics, according to a government release.

The move seeks to address long-standing fragmentation in the planning and implementation of transport infrastructure by promoting greater coordination and multimodal integration.

Long-term transport plan

ITLA will prepare a comprehensive National Transport Master Plan with a planning horizon of 10 years or more. The plan will cover roads, railways, ports and shipping, civil aviation, inland waterways, coastal shipping, urban mobility and logistics.

It will also evaluate short-term sectoral plans of about five years and annual plans prepared by transport ministries, with the aim of ensuring their consistency with the National Transport Master Plan and encouraging multimodal infrastructure development.

ITLA will undertake technical appraisal of Government of India infrastructure projects costing Rs500 crore or more. Financial appraisal of these projects will continue under existing financial appraisal mechanisms.

Data-driven project monitoring

The authority will monitor implementation of transport and infrastructure projects above Rs500 crore and provide a coordinated mechanism for resolving issues. It will also conduct post-implementation impact assessments of such projects.

ITLA will create a unified transport data repository by bringing together datasets from multiple sources, including GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan, GPS-based systems and urban traffic management systems.

The authority will use the data for analytics, including freight flow and origin-destination analysis, to support planning, monitoring and impact assessment.

ITLA will also advise and assist in reviewing and updating the National Logistics Policy, 2022, besides supporting capacity building, training and skilling in the logistics sector and promoting research and innovation in transport and logistics.

The Ministry said the authority would help strengthen multimodal connectivity, improve infrastructure efficiency, reduce logistics costs and enhance India's global logistics competitiveness as part of the country's Vision 2047.