CARGOCONNECT-APRIL2026 - Flipbook - Page 20
COVER STORY
INFRASTRUCTURE IMPERATIVE
7.97%
of GDP
India’s reassessed
national logistics cost,
signi昀椀cantly lower
than the historical
13–14% estimate.
10.7%
CAGR
While large-scale investments in highways, freight corridors,
ports, airports, and logistics parks are steadily strengthening
physical capacity across the country, execution predictability
continues to depend increasingly on how effectively infrastructure layers function as a synchronised national network
rather than as isolated assets. Through perspectives from
industry leaders, Smiti Suri and Upamanyu Borah examines
the transition now underway—from constraint-driven movement planning toward connectivity-led logistics integration—
highlighting how the next phase of reliability gains will be
defined not only by expansion of assets, but by the alignment
of approvals, visibility platforms, multimodal readiness, and
predictive infrastructure intelligence across the country’s
rapidly modernising logistics backbone.
Expected growth rate
of India’s logistics
market by the end of
2026.
20%
Reduction
The average decrease
in transportation time
achieved through
dismantling interstate
GST checkposts.
892 Trains
A new single-day
record for interchange
trains achieved on
Dedicated Freight
Corridors (DFCs).
₹3.10
Lakh Crore
Total Union Budget
allocation for roads
and highways to
strengthen national
freight connectivity.
ROM CONSTRAINTS
TO CONNECTIVITY AND
INTEGRATION
Transit-time reliability remains one of the most
decisive determinants of logistics e昀케ciency
across India’s supply chain ecosystem today.
While national logistics costs are estimated
at roughly 13–14% of GDP, compared with
8–9% in many developed economies, the
more persistent operational challenge for
shippers is not infrastructure absence but
infrastructure inconsistency. Variability across
road corridors, port evacuation systems, rail
approvals, and regional cargo infrastructure
continues to in昀氀uence working capital cycles,
inventory bu昀昀ers, and delivery commitments
across sectors ranging from FMCG and retail
to heavy engineering and electronics.
For large-format and project-linked cargo
movements in particular, infrastructure variability translates directly into cost escalation
and execution risk. Sharad Kumar, AVP–
Transit-time reliability determines safety stock levels and
working capital cycles.
20 | CARGOCONNECT APRIL 2026
Head of Procurement – Indirect, Reliance
Retail, explains, “For large cargo in India,
road transport is unavoidable for 昀椀rst-mile
and last-mile movement — and this is where
the biggest pain lies.”
He further notes, “Weak bridges with
low load-bearing capacity, height restrictions
at flyovers and toll plazas, sharp turns in
industrial zones, delays in multi-state ODC
permits, and state border compliance checks
increase route deviations by 10–40%,” adding that this results in “higher per-km cost,
unpredictable transit times, and missed delivery
commitments.”
Even where national highway networks
have expanded signi昀椀cantly in recent years,
last-mile industrial connectivity continues to
shape execution outcomes. Vishal Kumar,
VP– Supply Chain, Bombay Shaving Company, observes, “While national highways
have improved, inconsistency at the city and
industrial cluster level leads to transit time
uncertainty. This directly impacts customer
promise timelines, forces higher safety stock,
and increases working capital, especially for
D2C and modern trade.”
Across modern supply chains, the implications of variability extend beyond physical
transit delays into planning complexity and
capital efficiency. Shyam S Yadav, Global
Lead– IT & Supply Chain Management,
Cargill, emphasises that “the most expensive
risk is not delay, but unpredictability.”
He further explains that “multimodal
disconnection around ports and industrial
corridors continues to drive cost and service
variability,” noting that organisations often
maintain higher inventory bu昀昀ers “not because
