Cabinet Approves Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA): One Body to Plan All Modes of Transport
The Union Cabinet on 6 October 2026 approved setting up the Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA) as a special purpose vehicle (SPV), a separate body created for one specific job.
ITLA will be the national body for research, planning, appraisal (checking), monitoring and impact assessment of transport and logistics. It aims to fix fragmented planning, where each transport ministry plans on its own.
It will prepare a National Transport Master Plan with a horizon of 10 years or more, covering roads, railways, ports and shipping, civil aviation, inland waterways, coastal shipping, urban mobility and logistics. It will also check the five-year sectoral plans and annual plans of transport ministries to keep them in line with this master plan.
ITLA will do the technical appraisal of government infrastructure projects costing ₹500 crore or more. Financial appraisal will stay with the existing mechanisms.
It will build a National Transport Data Repository combining data from GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan (vehicle registration database), GPS and urban traffic systems, to study how freight moves from origin to destination.
It will advise on reviewing the National Logistics Policy, support training and skilling, and promote research. The goals are better multimodal connectivity, lower logistics costs and higher global competitiveness, in line with Viksit Bharat 2047.
PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan
The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan is a digital, map-based platform that brings all the government's infrastructure plans onto one screen. Roads, railways, ports, airports, gas pipelines, power lines, telecom cables and many other layers are shown together on a map of India. "Gati Shakti" means "power of speed". The idea is that when every department can see what the others are building, projects can be planned together, built faster and cost less.
ITLA carries the Gati Shakti idea one step further. Gati Shakti gives a common map and a project-checking group (NPG). ITLA is meant to be a dedicated institution that prepares a long-term National Transport Master Plan, appraises projects of ₹500 crore and above on technical grounds, and builds a national data repository for freight flows.
National Logistics Policy, 2022
The National Logistics Policy (NLP) is the government's plan to make moving goods across India cheaper, faster and more reliable. While the PM Gati Shakti plan deals with building physical infrastructure, the NLP deals with the "software" of logistics: rules, processes, digital systems, skills and standards. Its aim is to bring India's logistics costs down to world-class levels so that Indian goods can compete abroad.
ITLA has been asked to advise on reviewing and updating the National Logistics Policy. Its National Transport Data Repository, built from e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan and GPS data, directly serves the NLP's third target of a data-driven system, and its integrated planning aims at the NLP's goal of lower logistics costs.
- ITLA approved by the Union Cabinet: 6 October 2026, as a special purpose vehicle (SPV)
- National Transport Master Plan: planning horizon of 10 years or more
- Covers: roads, railways, ports and shipping, civil aviation, inland waterways, coastal shipping, urban mobility, logistics
- Technical appraisal of government projects costing ₹500 crore or more (financial appraisal stays with existing mechanisms)
- National Transport Data Repository: GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan, GPS, urban traffic systems
- Linked frameworks: PM Gati Shakti NMP (2021), National Logistics Policy (2022), Viksit Bharat 2047
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