The Government recognizes the importance of sustainable logistics for India's economic growth and environmental well-being. Several initiatives have been taken to promote sustainable Logistics Industry, leveraging technologies including digitalization and automation.

The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) platform aims at enhancing industrial productivity and helping the country achieve its green logistics and clean energy goals through multi-modal connectivity across highways, railways, ports, airports, logistics infrastructure, and inland waterways with an objective of facilitating sustainable economic activities.

The National Logistics Policy (NLP 2022) through modernization aims to promote the adoption of digital technology. National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited (NICDC) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has developed digital platforms like Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) and Logistics Data Bank (LDB) for digitalized tracking and monitoring of logistics movement in the country. 

The National Logistics Policy (NLP 2022) aims to create a cost-efficient, resilient, and sustainable logistics ecosystem.  Focus areas in the National Logistics Policy include the Sectoral Plan for Efficient Logistics (SPEL) for major sectors of the economy like Coal, Cement, Fertilizer, Steel, Pharma etc. examining existing supply chain networks and promoting multi-modal transport, digitalization and automation. The recently launched Coal Logistics Plan proposes a strategic shift towards a railway-based system in the First Mile Connectivity projects, this transformative approach is expected to minimize air pollution, alleviate traffic congestion, and reduce carbon emissions by approximately 100,000 tonnes per annum. Moreover, a 10% saving in average turnaround time of wagons nationwide.

Considering the sustainability and environmental advantages of railways, the government aims to boost Indian Railway's freight share from the current 35-36% to 45% by 2030 through several strategic initiatives like National Rail Plan. Additionally, A Rail Sagar Corridor program by the Ministry of Railway being developed which aims to increase the Rail and ports-based cargo, improving modal shift for railways and contributing to cleaner ways of freight movement and to accelerate the growth of railways cargo traffic ‘GatiShakti Multi Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)’ policy has also been launched.

The Freight Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Calculator is developed for calculating and comparing total cost of transportation and GHG emissions between various modes of transport for a fixed Origin-Destination Pair to create awareness and promote sustainability. Indian Railway has introduced the concept of assigning “Rail Green Points” to its freight customers which give details of the expected saving of carbon emission.

An E-Handbook on Warehousing Standards has been launched to promote optimization, interoperability, modal-shift, providing guidelines and best practices for optimal warehouse space utilization. The warehouse standards prescribed are primarily governing the physical infrastructure of the warehouses including health and sustainability standards. The handbook will serve as a guide for infrastructure improvement, achieving efficiency, cost reduction, attracting investment, adoption of newer technologies and global best practices.

The digital platforms such as PM GatiShakti National Master Plan and the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) have facilitated data-driven decision-making. ULIP is enabling the industry players to get secure access to the data related to logistics and resources available with various Ministries. At present 37 systems from ten ministries are integrated through 118 APIs covering more than 1800 data fields for usage by the stakeholders.

This information has been provided by the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Shri Jitin Prasada in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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Green logistics: national policy and digital platforms promote modal shift to rail and data driven sustainability in freight. The policy framework advances green logistics by promoting modal shift, digitalization and automation to reduce freight emissions and enhance supply chain efficiency through sectoral plans and rail centric initiatives, while PM GatiShakti, Unified Logistics Interface Platform and Logistics Data Bank provide integrated data access; tools like the Freight GHG Calculator and Rail Green Points quantify emissions and an E Handbook prescribes warehousing standards to optimize infrastructure and sustainability.