Sarah Allmond, Kamal Assaf, Doug Bice, and Renee Burkart
Dr. Mike Marzano
Logistics Management
February 21, 2013
Infrastructure in India
India’s port, road, and rail networks need massive capital investment. The ports in India are operating beyond their intended capacity in spite of the construction of a number of new sites. Moreover, there are bottlenecks when clearing goods from customs: the time required to clear goods in India is twice that of South Korea and Thailand and three times that of the average for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Since most ports are overstretched and the time taken to obtain customs clearance is quite long, companies in India hold large inventories. Poor road and rail networks exacerbate these problems.
India is presently ranked 17th in the maritime nations of the world. About 95% by volume and 70% by value of the contry’s trade is carried on through meritime transport. The country’s coastline comprises 12 major ports (Chennai, Ennore, Haldia, Pradip, Kandla, Kochi, Kolkata, Marmagao, Mumbai, New Manglaore, Tuticorin and Visakhapatnam) and 187 minor and intermediate ports.
FDI up to 100% under the automatic route is permitted in the construction and maintenance of prots and harbours, maritime transport services and internal waterways transport services. The department of Shipping is also planning to enact a Shipping Trade Practices Act, which is presently in the daraft stage.
The government has formulated a draft maritime policy for sprucing up the maritime infrastructure and creating a framework to facilitate public and private investments, promote competition and enhance efficiencies. The government has launched the National Maritime Development Programme involving an investment of nearly US$22 billion. The programme comprises 276 projects at major ports and 111 projects in shipping and inland water transport sectors. The total port traffic is expected to increase at 6.6% CAGR to reach 705.8 million tonnes by 2013-14. Simultaeously, the capacity of ports is also expected to be upgraded to 917.6 million tonnes.
Infrastructure is seen as a key weakness for India when compared with China and other peer nations. Poor roads, ports, and railways are commonly viewed as a key factor preventing India from achieving the high growth rates seen in China and other East Asian nations over the past decades. Multiple governments have attempted to close this deficit but progress has often been held back by red tape and corruption among public officials as well as protests by locals, which have caused severe delays and cost overruns to infrastructure projects, thus discouraging participation by private sector partners.
Without substantial improvements to the country's infrastructure, growth beyond India's long-term trend (at roughly 7.5%) will be difficult to achieve. This now appears to be recognized by the ruling United Progressive Alliance government, which has made public infrastructure investment a key priority following its victory in the April-May elections.
Investments in infrastructure are projected at $500 billion during 2009–13. This will add significant impetus to industrial and capex (capital expenditure) growth, along with overall growth in the services sector. India registered investments of around $3 billion during 2008 in various infrastructure projects and private players are displaying a keen interest in infrastructure development. In addition, the World Bank is expected to allot funds to a special infrastructure fund.
The FY09/10 (April-March) budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on July 6 2009 laid a heavy focus on public infrastructure investment as a means to both uphold domestic demand in the short term and improve India's long-term growth potential. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) received a 23% increase in the allocation of funds for the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) in FY09/10.
The budget also included a 45% increase in the allocation to Bharat Nirman scheme aimed at improving rural infrastructure. A key player in the infrastructure development programme will be the India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL), a special purpose vehicle set up by the government to provide long-term financial assistance to infrastructure projects. The IIFCL raised INR1trn (US$20bn) in FY08/09 to refinance infrastructure investment loans in FY09/10, which should be a significant factor to ensure continued credit to the infrastructure sector through the economic downturn. (Raju)
Agriculture contributes 17.4% of the country’s GDP in 2009. Around 60% of the country’s population is still dependent on agriculture, so the ruling UPA has taken a host of measures such as a massive loan waiver scheme for farmers, with a huge INR720 billion ($14.4 billion) in 2008 set aside for this. The loan waiver scheme covered both marginal and small farmers. India’s agricultural output recorded a growth rate of 9.6% in 2006, which went up to 14.1% in 2007. However, it came down to 8.8% in 2008. Fig below from RBI annual report 2006-07 & data monitor shows India’s agricultural output.

Figure [ 1 ], RBI Annual Report
India is one of the countries that make up the acronym BRIC, (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). To be a BRIC means that each of these countries is considered up-and-coming and is a symbol of the shift in global economic power from fully developed countries to rapidly developing countries. India is certainly not an exception. India is rapidly expanding and as more companies are being spawned from this country, the need for more transportation is increasing substantially. More specifically, the need for an improved logistics infrastructure in terms or roads and railways in India is increasing. The roads in India carry about 90% of all passenger traffic and 65% of all freight (The World Bank). There is an abundance of TL and LTL carriers in India, and the demand for more is expected to increase by approximately 10% over the course of the next five years, but the looming question is if India’s infrastructure of roadways will allow that increase or if will stifle it. The total length of roadways in India measures 2,063,210 miles, making India the third largest road network in the world. Most roadways in India are two-lane roads that are poorly maintained and not easily accessible. In fact, only one third of all road transportation improvements needed are being funded. These problems have been causing major congestion and plenty of accidents, not to mention increased transportation costs for the consumer. Approximately 33% of all Indian roads do not have access to all-weather roads and are simply not accessible during monsoon season. These problems are causing increased over-the-road transportation costs such that private owner-operators are struggling in this industry. In fact, in recent news, a transporters union has asked the government for pricing regulations to ensure minimum price requirements for cargo transports. “Since January, with the Government adopting a mechanism of increasing diesel price by less than a rupee for retail users, including truck owners, many transporters are unable to trigger an escalation clause in their contracts with public sector units and corporate contracts” (TransREporter). In addition to the problem of increased motor costs, all national highways are metalled (a durable road surface laid down that sustains large amounts of vehicle traffic), but few are constructed of concrete. The Mumbai-Pune expressway is one exception. This highway was India’s first six-lane, concrete, high-speed roadway. It connects Mumbai to Pune and is also India’s first toll-way. The cost to build this highway network was $297 million. Construction of multi-lane national highways is an ongoing process and is generally funded by the Central Government with the help of the World Bank. The intent of this construction is to build all-weather roads that link all cities in India that have a population of 500 or above. The end result will be that over the road transportation in India will be faster, cheaper and safer. India partakes in rail transportation quite frequently. First introduced in 1853, railways have become the second largest form of transportation in India. The rail industry in India consists of sixteen zones of service, which are further divided into sixty seven different divisions. Together, they haul approximately two million tons of freight daily, covering 71,000 miles. The freight segment in the Indian rail industry accounts for about 70% of total rail revenue. The railways are coded under Indian Railways, supervised by the Ministry of Railways. The major railways in India consist of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, connecting in West Bengal, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, located in the Nilgiri Hills, the Kalka-Shimla Railway, in the Shivalik Mountains and the Neral-Matheren, connecting Matheren just north of Bombay. “In India freight (goods) trains can carry standard containers double-stacked on flat-bed wagons with normal axle load of about 22 tons and do not require special low-bed wagons unlike in other countries that have (relatively narrow) 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge. They carry almost 4000 tons per rake which is almost twice the load a normal goods train can haul” (Wikipedia). Low road overbridges and foot overbridges were knocked down in order to accommodate these double-stacked trains. While the railways account for India’s second largest form of transportation, they have been experiencing severe capacity constraints. In addition, freight transportation costs via rail are much higher than in other countries. This is large in part due to Indian freight tariffs that have been high to help subsidize passenger freight. Another that is plaguing the Indian rail network is poor service. The poor service can be attributed to deteriorating railways, which have caused many rail accidents. As such, there are strict speed restrictions in regards to rail transportation, which means that timely deliveries are becoming harder and harder to come by. Yet another issue facing the Indian rail network is that it is extremely outdated. It has failed to keep up with technology, and other countries have surpassed India. This has caused India to lose business, as they cannot keep up with demand. Funding is also not as prevalent for the rail industry in India as it is in other countries, so this country has been unable to replace outdated locomotives as easily as its competitor countries. Although rail is India’s second largest form of transportation, this transportation sector has started shrinking substantially in the last decade due to the above mentioned issues.
Air cargo logistics in India has the smallest volume of trade among the various modes of transportation available. Although it has the smallest volume, the goods transported via air cargo are typically higher in value. Most air cargo terminals have three types of users, airlines, the terminal operators and freight forwarders or cargo agents. Freight forwarders are the main contributor to the air cargo terminal revenues and are critical to the foreign carriers that trade with India. Time sensitive goods like pharmaceuticals are one of the factors responsible for an 82% increase in the growth of domestic cargo transported as belly cargo on domestic airlines. Air cargo is chosen over the more dominant sea cargo more and more as the types of cargo become more perishable and time or handling sensitive. Rising levels of disposable income for the general population means a growth in the request for those higher value items. To meet these needs the transit time for this type of cargo needs to be reviewed and reduced to lower the total cost to market. This reduction in the time to market will increase the competitiveness of the overall air cargo industry. Without this competitive advantage, many companies will continue to use sea cargo carriers as the tried and true product delivery avenue.
India has experienced a boom in international and domestic trade in recent years. Several initiatives were put in place during the late 80’s and early 90’s, which first allowed Air Cargo to provide on-demand passenger service to try to boost tourism. The second policy specified that when a carrier either foreign or domestic achieved a specified level of safety and operational goals they could run services whether scheduled or not between any airports in India that had an available customs facility. In addition, they could set their own cargo rates. The six largest airports in India are Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad with Chennai located on the Coromandel Coast, having the highest air cargo throughput. Chennai has a diverse industrial base with many large companies including computer manufacturing and healthcare. These types of industries are important to the sustainability of air cargo transportation and this type of logistics can give them a distinct competitive advantage. Chennai is also a large hub for India’s automobile manufacturing industry. As we have learned previously this type of industry typically uses just-in-time inventories to reduce their costs. This will push the demand for air carrier usage as these manufacturers continue to use global outsourcing to find the best materials.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is measureable events that define the performance of an industry. “Always remember that one thing cannot be managed if it cannot be measured. And if something is not manageable, it cannot be improved.” (Miller) KPIs for air carriers and their cargo terminals are package tracking/delivery and Received as Agreed on Time (RAT). Package tracking and delivery involves the carrier staff and an information management system that allows them to reliably tag and load the packages. Air cargos within India air carriers have had issues with missing or non-traceable cargo where “almost 75% of the cases go unreported and claims are arbitrarily settled” (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India) . RAT begins when the package is dropped off at the air carrier and ends at the receipt of the package at the customer. Dwell time and throughput efficiency are portions of that time that the Indian air carriers struggle most with. According to MOCA, “none of the three (largest) airports are achieving the International bench mark for this band which is 10 MT per sq. meter of covered area.” (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India) Although this may not be valid since dwell, time is typically part of the customs clearance process associated with transshipments and India only does a small percentage of transshipment cargos.
Challenges for the air cargo industry in India are bottlenecks from overloaded facilities, regulatory hurdles, and automation adoption. The air cargo terminals in India lack infrastructure to handle specialized cargo that need additional facilities or handling such as temperature sensitive food stuffs or pharmaceuticals. They also lack personnel trained in handling dangerous goods and this drives up the time a shipment can be turned around. In addition, there is no consistent policy for space, or parking bays, for dedicated air freighters. One of the biggest regulatory challenges is a requirement that 100% of export shipments be examined. This leads to large delays in processing time thus adding to the possibility of missing shipment parcels.
Extra shipments may arrive that are not listed on the manifest or miss-labeled on the documentation. Much of the documentation around the air cargo and customs facilities is outdated and duplicates printed copies, which exacerbate the tracing of shipments and parcels. The Ministry of Civil Aviation states, “Wherever data is transmitted electronically at least in such cases no hard copies should be required by customs.” (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India) There is a serious lack of supervision of the many, often unskilled, loaders at the truck docks prior to customs clearance and this greatly increases the possibility of pilferage or simple parcel misplacement.
The adoption of information systems is critical to addressing some of the above challenges but the usage of Warehouse Management Systems and similar packages is not widespread. In order to increase this adoption several things need to be done: * Interconnection of governmental agencies * Airport process standardization * Removal of need for paper documentation * Reduction of redundant information entries * Increase visibility of shipment
The first recommendation for increasing usage of the air carriers in India would be to build up the usage of technologies such as Automatic Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) and their terminals and x-ray screening of cargos. These technologies will decrease the throughput times and increase the visibility of individual shipments. The greater visibility of a shipment will decrease the possibility of pilferage or misplacements of parcels within that shipment.
Air cargo logistics does not currently enjoy the status of an Industry. If that Industry status were granted to this sector those companies would have better access to financing and insurance they do not currently have. It would also be recommended that Infrastructure status be granted to them to incentivize them with Income tax benefits.
A third recommendation would be to enhance the off-airport logistics facilities for air cargo. This would include Air Freight Stations for cargo processing, custom related activities, covered storage, better shipment traceability and less congestion at the actual airport complex. The current restriction of space and shipment accessibility seriously decreases any possible growth in cargo operations. Expansion of the actual airport facility would cost much more including a slight lost of the Income tax benefits previously mentioned.
Airports in India are ideally situated to perform as a transshipment hub between Europe and Southeast Asia or Australia. This transshipment hub potential needs to be exploited. Transshipment hubs in Asia are the direct competitors to any airports in India. To win the advantage the airports in India need to invest in excellent infrastructures and maintain attractive trade agreements.
Ports play a critical and vital role in the overall economic development of India. In fact, 70% of the international trading is carried on through maritime transport according to the Indian ministry of shipping. However, development of India’s ports and trade related infrastructure runs behind the global economic growth due to their inability to meet the modern global standardizations.
India’s economic growth has accelerated during the last few years and the total GDP has grown as well. However, the Indian Port and Shipping Sector still suffer from various problems due to poor investment, lack of funds and resources required for the development of this important sector. Indian ports have low draft, this makes access of large bulk vessels problematic and causes higher unit shipping cost for low value items. On the opposite side, the competition among the Indians’ port themselves has been increasing which will open new chances for the development of ports and shipping sectors to perform quality services in alignment with international standards and improve their quality to meet the demands of local and international customers. Thus, there will be a need to expand the country’s ports and develop shipping yards in a timely and efficient manner in order to compete with other modern global ports and acquire new international investors.
Ports in India are classified as major and non- major (intermediate, minor). According to the Indian Ministry of Shipping, there are 12 major ports and around 176 non-major ports, those ports are lying along the coast and islands within the entire country. However, the major ports handle around 74% of the total cargo traffic.
The total traffic in Major Ports was projected to be 510.47 million tonnes, 739.41 million tonnes, and 1595.07 million tons in 2007-08, 2011-12 and 2025-26 respectively as per the consolidated Perspective Plan of respective Major (G. K. Vasan). The most cargo shipment was coal, iron, ore, and petroleum, which make up 80% of the Indian's port traffic. Cargo traffic will be increasing within the coming years due to the efforts exerted by the government in order to attain high global standards of transportations and competition with other international ports. The current situation of ports are poor due to the lack of regular maintenance and improper management, most ports have limited capacity and unable to accommodate huge cargo containers, machines used are mainly old and lack flexibility. As a result, cargo processing would be difficult and time consuming. There is very little modern technology and advanced computerized software. Thus, cargo handling is processed poorly with limited ability.
Cargo traffic is being continually improved especially after the liberalization laws have been applied in the country, the Compound Annual Rate of Growth (CAGR) of traffic at major ports during 1950-51 to 2009-10 has been 5.80 percent, whereas during the post- liberalization period, i.e. from 1991-92 to 2009-10, the CAGR was 7.31 percent (G. K. Vasan).

Source: Indian ministry of shipment -2011 annual report
Major ports have the biggest capacity among the Indian's ports and new berths, jetties, and terminals were constructed. In addition, to the usage of modern machines that allows to move the containers with a high rate of flexibility and accuracy. Moreover, a new program was launched called National Maritime Development Program (NMDP), this has the function to improve the ports general infrastructure. NMDP starts functioning in 2005 and expects to increase the total capacity of major ports 504.75 million tons against the actual traffic currently handled at level of 463.78 million tons in the beginning of program (IMS-2011).
In order to improve ports infrastructure, Indian government the Ministry of Shipping has put guidelines for private sector participation, which allows the private sector to invest within the field of ports developments. This project launched under the name of Public Private Partnership (PPP). As a result, private sector participation in Major Ports had infused additional useful funds, modern technology had been inducted, management practices has improved, new powerful machines were implemented such as modern high capacity cranes. Today there are 22 projects in construction with private sector participation and the number are expected to increase in the future.
NMDP is a program launched by the Indian's government and its purpose is to develop the infrastructure of ports based on the requirement of the trade and the future projections of traffic. NMDP has performed a total of 76 projects over the period of 2005-2012. However, not all the projects are progress due to the lack of funds and investors.
The number of Non-major ports is around 178, which categorized as medium capacity and low capacity, the majority of them are of limited small capacity, and they lack the suitable mechanism for cargo handling. According to the latest Indian Credit Rating agency (ICRA) reports on Indian ports, non-major ports handled around 34% of the total cargo at 300 million tones and it's expected to be increased especially after the improvements being implemented due to the application of ports infrastructure program development and PPP program.
The non-major ports require strong assistance and a complete development program in order to achieve international standards and high quality services. The most vital problem is directed towards the ports capacity, the low capacity consider an obstacle in assimilation of huge cargo and containers. However, minor ports attract private investment for development rather than major ports.
Inland Water is an efficient transport sector, particularly for good bulk services. In addition, it plays an important role in the development of economy. Inland water transportation routes are developed along existing rivers and canals and do not require extensive land acquisition. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) was established in 1986 for development and regulation of inland waterways for shipping and navigation. The Authority primarily undertakes projects for development and maintenance of Inland Waterway Transportation (IWT) infrastructure on national waterways through grants received from Ministry of Shipping. According to the ministry of shipping/ IWA, India had around 14,500 km of navigable waterways which consist of rivers and canals. In addition, there is about 55 million tons of cargo is being transported every year by means of IWT. However, some areas are being restricted such as Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River.
Indian Port problems: * Lack of Adequate Storage Areas. * Low Level of Mechanization. * Technology required for improvements. (Automation and communication system). * Machines used are being old. * Poor management processing. * Limited capacity. * Power shortage. * Insufficient funds for supporting projects. * services are below the global standards ( competition inability) * Ports connectivity
Recommendation of ports infrastructure: * Construction of new berths and terminals. * Installation of new and modern equipment. * replacement through higher capacity of cargo handling equipment * Mechanization of cargo handling operations (instead of regular old mood before). * Various computer aided systems to encourage automation in port operation. * Installation of Vessel Traffic Management System. * Implementation of Web- based Port community system * Power stations to meet the ports requirements * Advanced Communication system to support operations * Implementation of Surveillance System and Safety /Security System.

Bibliography
G. K. Vasan. "Maritime Agenda: 2010 - 2020." 01 2011. Government of India, Ministry of Shipping. 26 02 2013 <http://www.performance.gov.in/sites/default/files/document/strategy/Shipping.pdf>.
Miller, Sam. "Essence of Air Freight KPI." 17 06 2008. EZINE the Articles. 22 02 2013 <http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Essence-of-Air-Freight-KPI&id=1254707>.
Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. Air Cargo Logistics in India; Working Group Report. Working Group Report. New Dehli: Express Industry Council Of India, 2012.
Ministry of Shipping. ""Capacity of Indian Ports to REach 3,130 Million tonnes by 2020" says G.K Vasan." 17 12 2011. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 26 02 2013 <http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=78876>.
Raju, Silvarama Gidra. Interview. Doug Bice. 12 02 2013.
The World Bank. "India Transport Sector." The World Bank: Transport in South Asia. 23 02 2013 <http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSARREGTOPTRANSPORT/0,,contentMDK:20703625~menuPK:868822~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:579598,00.html>.
TransREporter. "Indian Road transporters desire minimum cost for cargo." 23 02 2013. TransREporter. 24 02 2013 <http://www.transreporter.com/detail.php?pId=Indian_Road_transporters_desire_minimum_cost_for_cargo>.
Wikipedia. Transport in India. 24 02 2013. 25 02 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_India>.