CHENNAI: The Centre is planning to establish a centralised authority to steer transport and logistics planning by proposing creation of an Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority (ITLA) now under inter-ministerial consultation.
The state government is currently examining the proposal and is expected to offrer its suggestions to the centre soon, official sources said. This comes after inputs were sought from various agencies, including Chennai Metro Rail Limited. It is learnt that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has already conveyed its assent.
Under the proposal, ITLA will be set up as a not-for-profit special purpose vehicle under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, to be called the Gati-Shakti Transport and Logistics Planning and Research Authority (GTLPRA).
The entity will be wholly owned by union government and function under the administrative control of the cabinet secretariat.
The authority will focus on research, planning, appraisal, monitoring and impact assessment across the transport and logistics ecosystem. GTLPRA will coordinate with five ministries – the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Civil Aviation, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
As part of the institutional restructuring, the ULIP and Logistics Data Bank (LDB) teams from National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation will be repositioned under a dedicated Transport Big Data Division within ITLA, along with the associated manpower. This division will anchor data integration, analytics and digital monitoring across transport modes.