Government Finalising City Logistics Plans For Delhi, Bengaluru To Reduce Congestion, Pollution
DPIIT has finalised city logistics plans for Delhi and Bengaluru to reduce traffic congestion, improve mobility, and lower pollution levels in the two cities.
The government is in the final steps of preparing a model city logistics plan for Delhi and Bengaluru, as it seeks to organise passenger and freight traffic in an effort reduce pollution and congestion in India's most crowded cities.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has now finalised model plans for Delhi and Bengaluru, after it first identified the two cities in early 2022.
Delhi has long been choking under toxic air during its winter months, with concerns over the situation mounting every November. Bengaluru citizens, on the other hand, complain of perpetual congestion, due to a population boom and the lack of an efficient integrated public transport network.
The idea of the plans stems from the fact that there is competition for road space as city transport network and infrastructure are shared by both passenger and freight traffic, according to DPIIT Additional Secretary Rajeev Singh Thakur.
Therefore, mobility plans focus on passenger movement only and logistics in cities is predominantly controlled by private interests, and hence public authorities have limited role. Hence, making a city logistics plan crucial for reducing congestion, pollution, as well as logistics costs, he said.
Thakur added that the guidelines are voluntary and conceptual in nature, and will be in the form of a framework that are not street or geography-specific. This would make the plans tailorable to specific local needs and peculiar city characteristics, collect relevant data and analyse its freight distribution issues and choose appropriate infrastructure, policy measures and services in collaboration with other relevant actors and stakeholders.
The guidelines will be considered a living document that will continue to evolve through inputs from stakeholders, and the DPIIT will extend its support to the willing states and union territories to prepare city logistics plans.
The guidelines are a part of the broader National Logistics Policy launched by the government in 2022.
