By:- Asad Mirza, Director, Cargo Force:
"Honestly, integrated planning is the single biggest gap I have seen in logistics, in India and elsewhere. Air, road, rail and ports have each grown on their own track, and the cost of that shows up at the handover points: the airport gate, the customs desk, the last mile into a Tier-2 city. An authority that plans across modes rather than within them is the right idea, and we welcome it.
The data piece matters as much as the planning. Today a shipment's status is re-keyed at every handover, and nobody has a single view of where the delays and costs actually sit. If this authority can bring that data together and use it to decide where capacity and investment go, that is where the real efficiency gains will come from. From where we sit, the test will be whether it reaches the smaller end of the market. Most of the shipments we handle on the UK–India corridor are personal and household cargo for families, and increasingly small businesses and e-commerce sellers. For them, the problem is not the flight. It is the fragmented chain around it, and the lack of a single, predictable process from arrival to doorstep. If the new authority can align customs, airport handling and last-mile networks, particularly into cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi and Indore where demand is growing fastest, it will make cross-border movement simpler, cheaper and more reliable for the people and businesses who depend on it. That is the outcome we will be watching for."
