India approves Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority to cut logistics costs
The government aims to reduce costs by more than 10% through PPP reforms and faster execution.
INDIA – The Union Cabinet has approved creating the Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA) as a Special Purpose Vehicle to unify transport and logistics planning across roads, railways, ports, aviation, inland waterways and urban mobility, according to a government statement.
The ITLA will serve as the apex institution for integrated planning, research, project appraisal, monitoring and data analytics, addressing long-standing fragmentation among multiple transport ministries.
It will prepare a National Transport Master Plan with a 10-year horizon, evaluate sectoral plans for alignment, and conduct technical appraisals of central infrastructure projects costing ₹500 crore (US$51.7 million) or more.
Mandate and data infrastructure
The authority’s remit includes project monitoring, post-implementation impact assessment, and review of the National Logistics Policy 2022.
A central pillar is the National Transport Data Repository, which will aggregate datasets from GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan, GPS systems, and urban traffic management platforms to support freight-flow and origin-destination analytics.
The SPV structure, developed under the Companies Act, enables streamlined funding and stakeholder consultation, with representation from major infrastructure sectors.
It will operate under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and complement the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan.
Cost trajectory and investment context
The ITLA’s creation comes as India’s logistics costs have declined to 10-10.7% of GDP in FY26 from 13-14% a decade ago, generating annual savings of US$123-133 billion, according to a CII-Knight Frank report.
As a result, the government aims to reduce costs by more than 10% through PPP reforms and faster execution.
The freight and logistics market is projected to grow from US$315.89 billion in 2026 to US$476.51 billion by 2031 at an 8.57% CAGR, according to Mordor Intelligence.
Moreover, multimodal adoption, driven by PM GatiShakti, the Dedicated Freight Corridors and Sagarmala, is shifting long-haul freight towards rail and coastal shipping, where costs are lower than on the road.
Lastly, the data repository’s integration of FASTag and e-way bill data will give planners visibility into actual freight flows, potentially reshaping corridor investment priorities away from politically driven projects toward empirically identified bottlenecks.
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