FASTag slashes average waiting time by 93% to 47 seconds: India to World Bank

India has told the World Bank that it has reduced the average waiting time at toll plazas to 47 seconds from 714 seconds due to FASTag and lowered the export release time at land ports to 22 hours in 2022 from 101 hours in 2021.

At a meeting with World Bank officials this week, the government said it plans to add 30,000 km of additional railway tracks by FY31, increase port capacity to 2,200 mtpa by 2030 from 1,617 mtpa last year, and expand the national highways network to 185,000 km by 2030, of which 75,000 km would be four-lane and above.

The meeting was led by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade as part of India's aim to break into the top 25 countries in the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI).


"We have showcased initiatives in logistics and infra sectors to the World Bank team, and also next-gen reforms in areas such as rail, road, multimodal shifts, EXIM, customs, green logistics," said Sumita Dawra, special secretary (logistics), DPIIT.

India improved its ranking by six places to 38 out of 139 countries on LPI 2023. The previous ranking was released in April. The railway ministry aims to lay 80,000 km of additional rail tracks in the next 25 years and increase rail containerization to 35% in 2031 from 30% now.

Dawra said interventions of integrated logistics parks, digitised systems for freight data analytics, streamlining and simplification of processes, track and trace, etc, which are being implemented with greater speed, efficiency and scale, were also discussed with the World Bank.

India is also in the process of implementing a land port management system by June next year, which would aid tracking of consignments, mechanisation of cargo handling and facilitate competitively priced shipments. The Land Ports Authority of India is also in the process of developing 26 new land ports over the next five years.