The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)'s Goa chapter recently made an appeal to Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar, to come out with a logistics policy for the state. There is a pressing need for such a policy because a number of huge infrastructural projects are happening in the state like Mopa Airport, third bridge over Mandovi River and new bridge over Zuari River.
The new policy must bring all these projects along with Goa's existing infrastructure together to create a logistics backbone of the state. Bear in mind that Goa already has Dabolim Airport, Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) and a prominent railway station in Konkan region in Margao. For a state, which is smaller than most districts of India, Goa has relatively better infrastructure than other parts of the country, but, unfortunately, the same has not been properly utilised.
Take the case of barges, for example. Most barge-owners lost their livelihood the moment iron ore mining was banned. This happened because their reliance was solely on mining. If they could get cargo from other industries, their survival wouldn't have been threatened. However, for that to happen, the inland waterways, the sea, the roads and the industrial areas have to be well connected with each other.
This is where the ‘National Waterways' project can be of huge help. Under this project, six stretches of rivers in the state, including Mandovi River, Zuari River, Sal River, Mapusa River, Chapora River and Cumbarjua River, will be improved so that they can be used for transportation.
Industry has already expressed hope that proper dredging will happen due to the national waterways project, which will improve the movement of barges. Moreover, the introduction of Goods-and-Services-Tax (GST) will also help in Goa becoming a logistics hub because central sales tax (CST), which was applicable on inter-state movement of goods, has been abolished.
As CST is abolished now, companies can build warehouses wherever in the country without worrying about paying tax on inter-state movement of goods. Given that Mopa Airport is coming up and MPT already exists, it is very likely that a lot of companies will show interest in setting up storage infrastructure in Goa.
All this will happen only if there is a holistic approach towards logistics and infrastructure. Projects of such a huge size will cause apprehension among people as has already been witnessed in the case of the national waterways project. It is therefore necessary for the state government to dispel such misconceptions among people so that they realise the true potential of these projects.
A decisive approach towards logistics will change Goa for the better for decades to come. Otherwise, we will be looking at our times as a wasted opportunity.
