Plans for Freight Smart Cities Unveiled

India is considered to be the fastest-growing economy country all over the world. India has grown this much because of its rising demands for goods and good services among the citizens. It generally boosts the economic growth of the country. So, here, the movement of goods plays a vital role in many sectors like e-commerce to ensure timely product deliveries, contributing to economic growth.

The Logistic Division of the Commerce Ministry has unveiled the main concept of freight smart cities to improve urban freight efficiency and create a chance to reduce logistic costs.

The Reason Behind Freight Smart Cities

Freight refers to goods mainly carried by train, truck, or ships. With the growing urbanization, the need for rapid economic growth, including e-commerce, and the corresponding first and the last mile of the freight traffic, increasing noise pollution, and traffic congestion in cities generally affect the local economy and public health. So, the Logistic Division has decided to make a proper plan for these issues to help improve the urban freight system, which will give birth to freight smart urban areas.

What is the Plan?

It is important to have  freight smart cities in India. So, the Government has already introduced a website and a handbook regarding the plan. The handbook mainly focuses on the 14 major and vital key measures to improve the freight city movement. According to the handbook, the measures should be divided into four categories: Vehicle Use Optimization, Demand and Land Use Planning, Infrastructure Development, and Technical Adaptation.

Vehicle Use Optimization

It mainly mentions optimizing the distance travelled by freight vehicles in the city and the number of trips. It suggests shifting the truck traffic during the night at off-peak hours, creating individual truck routes for truck operation.

Demand and Land Use Planning

It mainly focuses on planning the growing demand for freight in urban places to reduce peak hour traffic, promote sustainable practice, etc. Measures include industrial planning, modal shift planning, bypasses and ring roads planning, low-emission zones, and parking and unloading zones, which have been suggested in this handbook.

Infrastructure Development 

The infrastructure development for transportation planning and inventory management is mainly expected to control emissions associated with freight movements. Suggestions like the development of urban logistic hotels and spaces, urban consolidation centres, logistic parks, and parcel delivery terminals are there in the handbook.

Technical Adaptation

This last category uses intelligent transportation and systems and refers to the digitalization of transportation and inventory management through the promotion of Urban freight electrification. 

Problems of Urban Transportation 

• The roads are made in a very inappropriate way which causes roadside congestion. Besides this, the faulty designs of buildings cause problems with the parking spaces.
• Due to the increased population of urban areas, the number of vehicles has reached a point where the road infrastructure cannot meet passengers’ demands.
• According to the Central Pollution Control Board, in India, around 180 cities face severe pollution, which is the fifth leading cause of death in India.
• Presently, no state legislation or comprehensive centre covers the requirements of Urban transport in the cities of India.
• Moreover, in Urban transport management, there is a lack of skilled personalities, which causes damage to Urban transportation.

Benefits of Freight Smart Cities Movement

Lots of benefits are there in the freight smart cities initiative. It is now really important to have a proper plan for developing freight transportation in the urban area. People will be benefited from this as they face lots of problems daily with the poor infrastructure of the roads. Through this initiative, a way will be open to enhance economic competitiveness. It also offers job opportunities in the future to the people. Moreover, it will help in reducing logistics-related costs and environmental impacts.

It will help in increasing the productivity and economy of the country. Congestion will be managed smartly. It also helps to reduce traffic delays and improve the management of vehicles. Using technologies instead of building more infrastructure, existing infrastructure will be optimized, focusing on the customer experience and operational outcomes. Freight smart cities initiative will also reduce pollution. It will play a role in reducing poverty by giving opportunities to people with various job offers. So, in this way, the income of the city’s poor people will be increased with the help of this initiative. Furthermore, senior citizens who are always facing problems due to poor transportation will be benefited after this.

Conclusion

The Freight smart city movement helps develop the entire infrastructure, automatically improving economic competitiveness and logistic efficiencies. The government took this initiative to improve the road infrastructure, reduce air pollution, and increase the income of the poor people. All of these will help the government to boost economic growth. It is expected that this movement will develop the country’s ranking in the Logistic Index. With the help of the movement, we hope that it will give a safe and cleaner Urban environment for our country.