Owing to poor transport connectivity, Jammu and Kashmir has been placed at the bottom of logistics index, an indicator of the efficiency of logistical services, in the first set of rankings released by Union Commerce and Industry Ministry recently.
The Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) Index has given only 1 index point to J&K, placing it at the bottom of the list of states having “worst logistic” connectivity in India.
LEADS survey – a composite indicator to assess international trade logistics across states and union territories, is based on a stakeholders’ survey conducted by Deloitte for the ministry of commerce and industry. While Gujarat topped the first-of-its-kind index, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh took the second and third positions, respectively.
Jammu & Kashmir was placed at the bottom of the table with Bihar finishing one rank higher.
The survey report attributes the state poor ranking to its lack of rail connectivity coupled with poor road links.
Jammu and Kashmir particularly Kashmir is solely dependent on supply/export of industrial goods, supplies via Srinagar-Jammu highway which is fragile to weather vagaries. While there is still no rail link which connects Kashmir with winter capital Jammu and rest of India, the only highway remains disconnected intermittently for about a month in a year. The Srinagar-Jammu highway remains open partially for light motor vehicles only or the traffic on the road is allowed to move on one side only for dozens of days in a year.
The LEADS index is based on various parameters such as rail and roads network, warehouses, efficiency of regulatory processes, logistics services, unscheduled stoppages etc and is a perception study on how stakeholders perceive international trade logistics performance across the states and union territories.
LEADS is loosely based on the World Bank’s biannual Logistics Performance Index (LPI), on which India was ranked 35 among 160 countries in 2016, up from 54 in 2014. LEADS is based on eight parameters such as infrastructure, services, timeliness, track and trace, competitiveness of pricing, safety of cargo, operating environment and regulatory process.
The study is based on a survey of 2,885 respondents across the country over a six-week period.
The study found that supply chain efficiencies and economies of scale are yet to be unlocked, mostly due to suboptimal investment in building scale in infrastructure, automation, human capital and technology. It high-lighted problems such as inadequate terminal capacity, poor last-mile terminal connectivity and issues in regulatory services provided by government agencies, among others. It also underlined issues specific to certain states.