New Delhi: Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that logistics costs in India have fallen to single-digit levels, driven by the rapid expansion of expressways and economic corridors across the country.
A recent report prepared by IIT Chennai, IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore has revealed that India's construction of expressways and economic corridors has helped reduce the country's logistics cost to 10 per cent from 16 per cent earlier, he said.
He also said that logistics cost is 12 per cent in the US, 12 per cent in European countries and 8 to 10 per cent in China.
Lower the logistics cost will boost the exporters, he said while addressing an event.
India needs to focus on alternative fuel, new technology to reduce air pollution: Minister Nitin GadkariTalking about India's automobile sector, he said, "Our target is to make India's automobile industry the number 1 in the world". "When I took charge as transport minister, the size of the Indian automobile industry was Rs 14 lakh crore. The size of the Indian automobile industry now is Rs 22 lakh crore," Gadkari added.
Presently, the size of the US automobile industry is Rs 78 lakh crore, followed by China (Rs 47 lakh crore) and India (Rs 22 lakh crore).
The minister said there is a need to encourage biofuel and alternative energy, citing the West Asian crisis, which created fuel shortages for many Asian countries.
Insisting that green hydrogen is the fuel of the future, Gadkari said the government has identified 10 highway stretches in different parts of the country for plying green hydrogen-powered trucks to cut vehicular pollution.