Planning for freight movement a case of Pithampur Dhar Mhow investment region

Abstract

India is experiencing rapid economic development. Freight movement is an essential and integral part of national development planning process as it boosts the full exploitation of factors of production and is the basis of the network of distribution. In national transport systems, freight transport acts as the critical link between ports, markets and manufacturing centres. For a vast country like India, lack of mobility of critical industrial inputs could be a major obstacle to growth. So today an essential ingredient of a thriving national economy is a cost-effective freight transportation system. On the other hand, it is also a fact that existing transport infrastructure has not kept pace with the growth in demand. It is believed that line capacity utilization on existing trunk routes is far in excess of saturation capacity. The same network is concurrently used for passenger and freight transport, making it problematic for both. Lower average speed, unplanned halting of trains and outdated technologies reduce the operational efficiency of the system. A report by McKinsey and company observes that “India’s logistic infrastructure is not adequately equipped to meet rapidly rising freight traffic, changing consumption patterns and increasing number of production centres”. Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow Investment region is one of the upcoming growth nodes in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Scheme. It will be developed as high-end Industrial area with access to freight logistics chain. This region would be located close to Indore, the commercial capital of the State. Based on the region’s potential, Government of Madhya Pradesh has formulated mega scale investment plans for the region. This region is part of the Audhyogic Kendra Vikas Nigam (AKVN), Indore, a specialized State Govt. Corporation dedicated to the development of Industrial areas and Infrastructure facilities in the western part of the state. With so much of investment pouring into the Industrial Area of Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow region, the freight movement requires planning for the future. Region’s main industrial town Pithampur already suffering from transportation & logistics issues like organized parking space as well as road space for large scale containers and for buses, vans, trucks and other medium to heavy vehicles, encroachments along arterial roads, less turning radius for multi axle trucks etc. Looking at the major development of the region under DMIC there is a need to develop logistics infrastructure facilities and transportation for future. Thus, this thesis aims to reduce the congestion in the core area of the region during peak hours of traffic and to streamline the movement of Freight/Cargo in the study area till year 2023 by workout efficient linkages, logistics & Infrastructure provisions for future goods movement for the study area.