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Ajish P Joy
Ajish P Joy

INFRASTRUCTURE

'Door-to-door transport on a single bill is need of the hour'

SHIPPING-GPS/CYBER Representational image | File

Bhiwandi, located about 60km from Mumbai, is being developed into an economic corridor and transport hub. Once fully developed, it is expected to create more than a million jobs. The Maharashtra government has already spent Rs 985 crore to develop a logistics park and other infrastructure facilities in Bhiwandi. Like Bhiwandi, the Union government is planning to open 35 multimodal logistics parks across the country, keeping in mind the fact that logistics account for nearly 20 per cent of the total product cost in India, while the comparable figure is 8-12 per cent in China and 12 per cent in Europe. 

“China planned much ahead of us, anticipating future demand,” said Shantanu Bhadkamkar, managing committee member of the Association of Multimodal Transport Operators in India (AMTOI). More than two decades ago, when China started building 20 ports, experts in the west criticised the move, saying China required two or three major ports instead of twenty. “However, at present, seven of the ten busiest ports in the world are in China, showing that the Chinese were right in their assessment,” said Bhadkamkar, addressing a press conference in Kochi. Bhadkamkar is the managing director of logistics company ATC Group and chairman of Rotomatic Containers Private Limited. 

AMTOI was established in 1998 as a not-for-profit body to organise multimodal transport organisers at national level and to examine the problems faced by them and to propose solutions. It offers support to the ministry of shipping, road transport and highways on a number of issues, including the drafting of a coastal and international shipping policy and on deliberations on the Shipping Trade Practices Act.

Although India is blessed with a coastline of more than 7,500km, we have not been able to make use of it as far as transport and logistics are concerned. “Transporting goods through waterways are considerably cheaper and environment friendly,” said Bhadkamkar. To make use of such abundant coast line and water ways, the development of transport hubs are important. “This is especially true in the case of North India, where distance from ports to the hinterland is significantly larger, compared with the south,” he said. Therefore, door-to-door transport on a single bill is all the more significant. AMTOI is working with the government to ensure the ease of moving goods across the country and abroad and bring down the cost associated with it, to make trade more profitable and viable. 

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Topics : #infrastructure

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