NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved setting up India’s first integrated transport and logistics authority, giving the new body a mandate to plan, appraise and monitor projects worth over Rs 500 crore across roads, railways, ports, aviation, waterways, urban mobility and logistics.The Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority (ITLA) is aimed at ending fragmented planning across multiple transport ministries and agencies and driving greater coordination and multi-modal integration in infrastructure development. Announcing the decision, I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “By fostering greater coordination and multi-modal integration, ITLA is a new institution responsible for prospective planning for infrastructure development in the country.”The new agency is modelled on similar institutions in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and Japan, and was first reported by TOI in April 2024.Govt said ITLA will also create a unified transport data repository by obtaining relevant transport and logistics datasets from multiple sources, including GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan, GPS-based systems, urban traffic management systems and other databases. It will undertake data analytics for planning, monitoring and impact assessment.
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Each transport and logistics-related ministry will have an ITLA division to ensure better coordination and implementation of projects and schemes, officials said.The agency will prepare a comprehensive National Transport Master Plan with a planning horizon of 10 years or more. It will also evaluate five-year sectoral plans and annual plans of transport ministries to ensure consistency with the master plan and promote multi-modal infrastructure development.Vaishnaw said ITLA will coordinate the resolution of inter-ministerial issues and assess the impact of projects after their completion, making post-completion assessment an important part of its mandate.