Topics Covered: Population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
Freight Smart Cities:
Context:
Commerce Ministry’s Logistics Division unveils plans for ‘Freight Smart Cities’.
- The objective is to improve the efficiency of urban freight and create an opportunity for reduction in the logistics costs.
Implementation:
- Under the initiative, city-level logistics committees would be formed.
- These committees would have related government departments and agencies at the local level, state and from the reacted central ministries and agencies.
- These would also include private sector from the logistics services and also users of logistics services.
- These committees would co-create City Logistics Plans to implement performance improvement measures locally.
Need for:
- Final-mile freight movement in Indian cities is currently responsible for 50 per cent of total logistics costs in India’s growing e-commerce supply chains.
- Improving city logistics would also enable efficient freight movement and bring down the logistics costs boosting all sectors of the economy.
- Besides, Demand for urban freight is expected to grow by 140 per cent over the next 10 years.
Cities being covered:
Ten cities will be identified on immediate basis. It is planned to expand the list to 75 cities in the next phase before scaling up throughout the country including all state capitals and cities that have more than one million population.
Insta Curious:
Have you heard of World Cities Day observed on 31st October every year? Reference
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- About the initiative.
- Implementation.
- Concerned ministry.
Mains Link:
Discuss the significance of the initiative.
Sources: PIB.