India’s logistics cost will be down to less than 10% by December: Gadkari 

Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday (August 2, 2025) expressed confidence that India’s cost of logistics would come down to less than 10% by the end of December.

The lesser the logistics cost, the more competitive would be the Indian economy to take on China and the U.S., Mr. Gadkari said. China’s logistics cost was about 8% and that of the U.S. 12%. 

To reduce the cost of logistics, Mr. Gadkari said, the required transition from fossil fuels to electric mobility and biofuels was being made at a brisk pace, while developing the pan- India highway network, and sea ports, given the fact that water was the most economical mode of transport.

Speaking after virtually laying foundation for 27 road projects and inaugurating two other projects costing about ₹5,235 crore in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Gadkari said water, power, transportation and communications were crucial for the development of any country, and a glaring example was the U.S., the reason for whose prosperity was undeniably its superior roads.

Keeping this in view, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways gave top priority to building highways that not only provide faster means of transportation but were also safe.

Also, he stressed the importance of constructing sea ports, making due mention of the fact that apart from the major port in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh had a string of ports coming up along its 1,000-km-long coast with the support of Centre in tune with the priority attached by it to developing multi modal logistics hubs.

Mr. Gadkari said the transport sector was in for a significant transition from the usage of conventional fuels to more of blending them with ethanol and isobutanol across the spectrum of vehicles.

Even blending hydrogen with biofuels was being experimented, and that the day when all these became a reality was not far away. Also, airplanes would sooner than later start flying with ethanol as a fuel.

Apart from the above road projects, the Union Minister sanctioned a greenfield highway between Hyderabad and Vijayawada, and widening the existing one to six lanes, widening of Vijayawada to Machilipatnam highway to six lanes, and four-laning of Guntur-Vinukonda highway, Guntur-Nizampatnam, Akiveedu-Digamarru, Pedana-Lakshmipuram, and Muddanur-Kadapa highways.

Mr. Gadkari said the number of road accidents was quite high in A.P. as indicated by a safety audit done by the Ministry on 100 highways, and told Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan to duly focus on reducing them by making plans at the district level.