New Delhi: India's ambition to become a global manufacturing and industrial powerhouse will hinge on how efficiently it can move its mineral wealth, according to a report released on Tuesday by FICCI in association with Deloitte. The report, titled Enhancing Competitiveness of Mining and Metals: Focus Area – Efficient Logistics, argues that logistics has shifted from a peripheral support function to a strategic determinant of national competitiveness.
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It examines three areas: freight classes and structures, the augmentation of logistics infrastructure, and the use of metals in building port infrastructure and rail wagons.
As India advances towards a USD 30-40 trillion economy by 2047, the report says, demand for steel, cement, aluminium, copper, critical minerals and associated raw materials is projected to rise sharply, driven by urbanisation, infrastructure expansion, manufacturing growth and the clean energy transition. Competitiveness, it contends, will depend not merely on resource availability but on the efficiency with which materials travel from mines to processing units, factories, domestic markets and export gateways.
The report notes that government initiatives, including PM GatiShakti, the National Logistics Policy, Sagarmala, the Dedicated Freight Corridors, Maritime India Vision 2030 and the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), have established a foundation for integrated infrastructure planning. However, it identifies substantial unrealised gains in productivity and cost reduction across the mining and metals value chain.
Among its central findings is the need for a digitally connected, multimodal logistics network with seamless coordination across rail, road, ports and inland waterways, supported by real-time cargo visibility and predictive planning. The report also stresses that first- and last-mile infrastructure — railway sidings, conveyor systems and slurry pipelines — should be built into mining and industrial project planning from the outset, rather than added later.
The report structures its recommendations across three time horizons. In the short term, it calls for a National Metals & Minerals Logistics Mission to coordinate policy and infrastructure planning, the promotion of shared railway sidings and freight aggregation platforms for smaller enterprises, and streamlined single-window approvals.
Medium-term priorities include scaling up slurry pipelines and conveyor systems, mechanising railway terminals for faster loading and unloading, and modernising freight fleets.
Over the longer term, the report advocates extending dedicated freight rail corridors into mineral-producing states including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka, upgrading high-density mining corridors through line doubling, electrification and higher axle-load capacity, and developing port infrastructure through deeper navigation channels, mechanised bulk cargo berths and year-round scientific dredging backed by performance-linked funding.
Such investments, the report states, would lower logistics costs, improve freight efficiency, strengthen export competitiveness and deepen India's integration into global commodity and manufacturing value chains.
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"India will not run short of resources. The real competitive challenge lies in how efficiently those resources move from the mine to the market. The next phase of industrial growth will be shaped as much by logistics efficiency as by resource availability itself," the report states.
