India’s logistics cost to reduce to single digits in two years: Gadkari

Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that India's logistics cost will be reduced to single-digit within the next two years, adding that the ministry has been constructing several highways and expressways to help achieve this reduction.Addressing an event organized by NITI Aayog he said, "Within two years, we are going to reduce our logistics cost to 9 per cent.”Gadkari pointed out that low-quality coal is useful for making methanol and said that there is huge potential for India to export alternative fuels and biofuels. The minister further added that he aimed to make the Indian automobile industry number one in the world.The previous year, he said, India had overtaken Japan to become the third-largest automobile market in the world, following only the US and China.As with the expansion of India’s automobile industry, rising from 7.5 lakh crore in 2024 to Rs 18 Lakh crore at present, more jobs are being generated along the way, Gadkari said.For FY22, logistics cost in India ranged between 7.8 per cent to 8.9 per cent of GDP, according to quick estimates of the economic think tank National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).