Budget 2021: Bringing down logistics costs at the core, says FM

February 2, 2021: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the union budget for 2021-22 in the parliament on Monday (February 1) with a focus on the atmanirbhar bharat vision and had a commitment on improving the logistics infrastructure.

“Bringing down the logistic costs for our industry is at the core of our strategy to enable Make in India,” she said.

Roads and highways infrastructure
Finance Minister announced that more than 13,000 km length of roads, at a cost of ₹3.3 lakh crore, has already been awarded under the ₹5.35 lakh crore Bharatmala Pariyojana project of which 3,800 kms have been constructed. By March 2022, the government would be awarding another 8,500 kms and complete an additional 11,000 kms of national highway corridors. To further augment road infrastructure, more economic corridors are also being planned. She also provided an enhanced outlay of ₹1,18,101 lakh crore for the ministry of road transport and highways, of which ₹1,08,230 crore is for capital, the highest ever.

Railway infrastructure
Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan for India – 2030. The plan is to create a future-ready railway system by 2030. It is expected that Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Eastern DFC will be commissioned by June 2022.

The budget also provided a record sum of ₹1,10,055 crore, for Railways of which ₹ 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure.

Ports, Shipping, Waterways
Major ports will be moving from managing their operational services on their own to a model where a private partner will manage it for them. For the purpose, the budget proposes to offer more than ₹2,000 crore by major ports on public-private partnership mode in FY21-22.

A scheme to promote flagging of merchant ships in India will be launched by providing subsidy support to Indian shipping companies in global tenders floated by Ministries and CPSEs. An amount of ₹1624 crore will be provided over 5 years. This initiative will enable greater training and employment opportunities for Indian seafarers besides enhancing Indian companies share in global shipping.