56 new airports will become functional in few years: Prabhu

The Dollar Business Bureau

Citing the importance of efficient logistics for facilitating trade, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu on Thursday said that 56 new airports in India would be functional in the coming few years.

“Efficient logistics is critical for countries like India to harness trade and facilitate greater and faster integration with both the domestic as well as the world economy,” the Minister said while speaking at the two-day Global Logistics Summit, jointly organised by Ministry of Commerce, FICCI and World Bank Group.

Keeping this in mind, 56 new airports will become functional in the next few years which will enhance connectivity in the country,” he added.

While urging all the stakeholders to churn new ideas for enhancing India’s logistics efficiency, Prabhu said, “There are large number of players who play a key role in logistics and there is a need to optimise the present infrastructure available in India to achieve enhanced effectiveness in logistics.”

“There is exponential investment happening in infrastructure and our idea is that we must at least put in 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) into infrastructure,” he said.

The Minister also informed that a new division has been set up in the Ministry of Commerce to deal with the problems and have an integrated development of logistics in the country.

India’s logistics industry is growing at a rate of more than 10% annually and is estimated around $215 billion in 2019-20. There have been significant improvements made in railways, aviation, highways, roads, inland waterways, ports and coastal shipping, in the past decade. In order to keep up with the growing demand for logistics services in the country, it is crucial to create a consistent approach towards logistics across infrastructure, services and various modes of transportation.

On this, Prabhu said that by bringing together all the stakeholders from the industry, the Summit will provide a right platform for improving logistics and connectivity in the country, which are important to increase intra-state and global trade flows.