What are the hurdles to growth of the logistics industry?
The biggest hurdle to growth of the logistics industry is customs duty, bureaucracy and massive paper work involved while importing and exporting machinery in the country. The government should reduce customs duty and simplify temporary import norms. The logistics industry requires lots of equipment that need to be temporarily imported to execute a particular job and then sent back. Our associate companies abroad refuse to send equipment to India, because of the procedural hassle. Road infrastructure acts as a barrier to growth of the industry. A consignment that is shipped from a UK port to India takes three weeks. But, it takes two weeks to clear it at Mumbai Port, and another three weeks to send from here to Bihar. We have been demanding inland waterways for a very long time as it will increase our business and make transportation cheaper. In Italy, we have heavy lifts in internal rivers and heavy lift ships for rivers. To top it all, the law and order problem in places like Bihar a
