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The people’s newsroom

PolicyInfrastructure

Cabinet approves a single authority to plan roads, rail, ports and airports together

The Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority will draw up a national transport master plan and vet every central infrastructure project of ₹500 crore or more.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
Containers stacked at an Indian port with a freight train alongside
Containers stacked at an Indian port with a freight train alongsideSaankav / Wikimedia

Key points

  1. The Union Cabinet on 6 October approved an Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority (ITLA), set up as a special purpose vehicle.
  2. It will prepare a National Transport Master Plan with a horizon of 10 years or more across eight sectors, from roads to urban mobility.
  3. It will technically appraise and monitor central infrastructure projects costing ₹500 crore or more; financial appraisal stays where it is.
  4. The government's own study puts India's logistics cost at 7.97% of GDP in 2023-24.

The Union Cabinet has approved an Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority (ITLA), a new body meant to plan India’s roads, railways, ports, airports and waterways as one network. The decision was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 October.

The government says the authority will address “fragmented planning and implementation across multiple transport-related Ministries and agencies”. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, briefing reporters after the meeting, linked the move to rising demand for logistics as the economy grows at around 7-8%, and to the highways, rail lines, waterways, airports and ports being built to meet it.

What ITLA will do

The Cabinet release describes ITLA as the national apex institution for integrated transport and logistics planning, research, project appraisal and monitoring, policy support and data analytics. Its first big task is a National Transport Master Plan with a horizon of 10 years or more. The plan will cover roads, railways, ports and shipping, civil aviation, inland waterways, coastal shipping, urban mobility and logistics.

The ministries will keep making their own plans. ITLA will check their short-term sectoral plans (about five years) and annual plans for fit with the master plan.

Who does what under the new set-up

Stays as it isNew under ITLA
Planning
Transport ministries still draw up their own sectoral and annual plans.
A National Transport Master Plan looking 10 years or more ahead, with ministries' five-year and annual plans checked against it.
Projects
Financial appraisal stays with existing mechanisms.
Technical appraisal and monitoring of central projects of ₹500 crore or more, and an impact check after completion.
Data
GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan, GPS and urban traffic data sit in separate systems.
A National Transport Data Repository that pulls these sources together.
Policy
The National Logistics Policy 2022 stays in place.
ITLA advises on the policy's review.

For central government infrastructure projects costing ₹500 crore or more, ITLA will carry out the technical appraisal. Financial appraisal remains with existing mechanisms. It will also monitor these projects as they are built, run a coordinated mechanism to resolve problems, and assess their impact after completion.

A single pool of transport data

ITLA will build a National Transport Data Repository from sources the government already holds: GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan vehicle records, GPS-based systems and urban traffic management systems. The data is to be used for freight-flow and origin-destination analysis.

The authority will also advise on reviewing the National Logistics Policy of 2022, and run training, skilling and research programmes for the sector. It was reported to be meant to complement the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal set out the expected gains in a social media post on the day of the decision.

Expected impact includes greater infrastructure efficiency, lower logistics costs, stronger multimodal connectivity.

Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, 6 October 2026

The cost it is meant to bring down

The government’s own estimate of logistics costs came out last year. A study by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) with the National Council of Applied Economic Research put the cost at 7.97% of GDP in 2023-24. Earlier figures of 13-14% of GDP, widely quoted for years, came mostly from outside studies.

India's logistics bill, 2023-24

  • 7.97%logistics cost as a share of GDP
  • ₹24.01 lakh croretotal logistics cost
  • 9.09%share of non-services output
  • 3,500+industry respondents surveyed for the estimate

What is still not known

The Cabinet approved ITLA as a special purpose vehicle. Neither the release nor the briefing said whether it will be a company or a statutory body, or whether Parliament will be asked to pass a law for it. The authority is reported to be housed in DPIIT, under the Commerce and Industry Ministry; the Cabinet release does not name a lead ministry.

No chairperson, board, staffing, budget or start date has been announced.

The documents