Fast Tracking Freight In India

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NITI Aayog and  Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) released a  new report titled Fast Tracking Freight in India.

• It presents key opportunities for India to reduce its logistics costs.

Major Highlights 

• Freight transport: Freight transport demand is expected to grow rapidly in the future due to the rising demand for goods and services.
  • Freight transport is essential to economic development, it is plagued by high logistics costs and contributes to rising CO2 emissions and air pollution in cities.
  • As India’s freight activity grows five-fold by 2050 and about 400 million citizens move to cities, a whole system transformation can help uplift the freight sector.
  • This transformation will be defined by tapping into opportunities such as efficient rail-based transport, the optimisation of logistics and supply chains, and shift to electric and other clean-fuel vehicles. 
  • These solutions can help India save ?311 lakh crore cumulatively over the next three decades.
• India has the potential to:

• Reduce its logistics cost by 4% of GDP.
• Achieve 10 gigatonnes of cumulative CO2 emissions savings between 2020 and 2050
• Reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions by 35% and 28%, respectively, until 2050.

• Cost-effective 
  • Freight transportation is a critical backbone of India’s growing economy, and  it’s important to make this transport system more cost-effective, efficient, and cleaner.
  • Efficient freight transport will also play an essential role in realising the benefits of existing government initiatives such as Make in India, Atma Nirbhar Bharat, and Digital India.

• Recommendations 
  • The recommendations include increasing the rail network’s capacity, promoting intermodal transport, improving warehousing and trucking practices, policy measures and pilot projects for clean technology adoption, and stricter fuel economy standards.

• When successfully deployed at scale, the proposed solutions can help India establish itself as a leader in logistics innovation and efficiency in the Asia–Pacific region and beyond.

Initiatives To Promote Freight Transportation

• Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project : The project involves the construction of six freight corridors traversing the entire country. The purpose of the project is to provide a safe and efficient freight transportation system.

• Integration of the e-way bill (EWB) system with FASTag and RFID: FASTag has been integrated with the e-way bill system and a transporter is required to have a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag in his vehicle and details of the e-way bill generated for goods being carried by the vehicles are uploaded into the RFID system.
  • Through this, the authorities will  be able to track real-time data of commercial vehicle (CV) movement on highways by integration of the e-way bill (EWB) system with FASTag and RFID. 
  • The integration of e-way bill, RFID and FASTag will allow live vigilance for e-way bill compliances by businesses and help prevent revenue leakage by real-time identification of cases of recycling of e-way bills or non-generation of e-way bills.

• Fame India Scheme:Fame India Scheme 2021 was launched keeping in mind the pollution which was happening due to the vehicles which are operated through diesel and petrol. 
  • The first phase of the scheme is already done by the concerned authorities of the Indian government. 
  • Now, phase two of the scheme was started under which the Government of India will be giving out 670 electric buses in the states of Maharashtra Goa Gujarat, and Chandigarh.
  • FAME was launched to prevent the use of petrol and diesel.

• Bharat stage (BS) emission standards: They are laid down by the government to regulate the output of air pollutants from internal combustion engine and spark-ignition engine equipment, including motor vehicles.
  • The central government has mandated that vehicle makers must manufacture, sell and register only BS-VI (BS6) vehicles from April 1, 2020.
  • How is BS-VI fuel different from BS-IV fuel?
    • The main difference between BS-IV and BS-VI (which is comparable to Euro 6) is in the amount of sulphur in the fuel.
    • The lower the sulphur, the cleaner the fuel, so BS-VI fuel is essentially low-sulphur diesel and petrol.

• CAFE or Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency/Economy regulations are in force in many advanced as well as developing nations, including India. 
  • They aim at lowering fuel consumption (or improving fuel efficiency) of vehicles by lowering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thus serving the twin purposes of reducing dependence on oil for fuel and controlling pollution.

• EV (electric vehicles) programme: As a part of the endeavour, India is working to encourage its EV (electric vehicles) programme, with the Centre giving its approval to a Rs 18,100 crore PLI (production linked incentive) scheme to manufacture lithium-ion cells, to draw investments worth Rs 45,000 crore.

Source : PIB