Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, on Sunday said India’s logistics cost will be reduced to single digits by the end of 2026, aligning the country more closely with global benchmarks.
Currently, India’s logistics cost stands at 14–16 percent of GDP, compared to 8 percent in China and about 12 percent in Europe and the US. “By 2026, we will bring logistics cost into single digits,” Gadkari said at an event in New Delhi marking the inauguration of two major National Highway projects by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the Delhi section of the Dwarka Expressway and the Alipur–Dichaon Kalan stretch of Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II), together built at a cost of nearly ₹11,000 crore.
The 10.1-km Delhi section of the Dwarka Expressway, developed at around ₹5,360 crore, will provide multimodal connectivity to Yashobhoomi convention centre, DMRC’s Blue and Orange metro lines, the upcoming Bijwasan railway station, and the Dwarka Cluster Bus Depot. The 19-km Haryana section of the expressway had been inaugurated earlier in March 2024.
The UER-II project, developed at a cost of about ₹5,580 crore, connects Alipur to Dichaon Kalan with new spurs to Bahadurgarh and Sonipat. It is expected to ease congestion on Delhi’s Inner and Outer Ring Roads and de-bottleneck busy stretches like Mukarba Chowk, Dhaula Kuan, and NH-09. The new links will also boost industrial connectivity and improve goods movement across the NCR. “With these projects, people in Delhi-NCR will get major relief from traffic jams. I can say with confidence that traffic congestion in Delhi will reduce by nearly 50 percent,” Gadkari said.
