The Union Cabinet has approved the establishment of the Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA) as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to strengthen research, planning, project appraisal, monitoring and impact assessment across India’s transport and logistics sectors. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The authority is intended to address persistent challenges caused by fragmented planning and implementation among transport Ministries and agencies. It will serve as the national apex institution for integrated transport and logistics planning, policy support, data analytics, project appraisal and monitoring, while promoting coordination and multimodal infrastructure development. ITLA will prepare a National Transport Master Plan with a planning horizon of 10 years or more. The plan will cover roads, railways, ports and shipping, civil aviation, inland waterways, coastal shipping, urban mobility and logistics. The authority will also evaluate sectoral plans spanning about five years and annual plans of transport Ministries to ensure alignment with the national framework. The authority will undertake technical appraisals of Government of India infrastructure projects costing Rs. 5 bn or more. Financial appraisal will remain with existing mechanisms. ITLA will monitor implementation of projects above the same threshold, help resolve issues through a coordinated system and conduct post-implementation impact assessments. ITLA will develop a National Transport Data Repository by integrating datasets from sources including GSTN e-way bills, FASTag, Vahan, GPS-based systems and urban traffic management platforms. It will use analytics such as freight-flow and origin-destination analysis for planning and monitoring, support updates to the National Logistics Policy 2022, and promote training, skilling, research and innovation. The government said the institution would support Vision 2047 by improving connectivity, infrastructure efficiency, logistics costs and India’s global competitiveness.