Big-data integration through platforms like the National Transport Data Repository can transform infrastructure planning but raises governance concerns. Critically analyse.

The Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority (ITLA) was approved on 6 October 2026. It will run a National Transport Data Repository (NTDR) that pools GSTN e-way bill, FASTag, Vahan, GPS and urban traffic data to map freight flows and origin–destination (O-D) patterns [1]. This can move transport planning from guesswork to evidence, but only if governance safeguards keep pace.

How big data can transform planning

• Evidence-based master planning: O-D data lets the 10-year-plus National Transport Master Plan plan eight transport segments together instead of one mode at a time [1].
• Modal shift: Freight data can show which road cargo could move to rail. That is central to the National Rail Plan target of raising rail's freight share from 27% to 45% by 2030 [5].
• Accountability for outcomes: Impact assessment after a project is built tests whether it delivered the traffic it promised. The CAG found ₹1.07 lakh crore of cost overruns in ongoing railway projects, and only 35% of them had completion targets [3].
• Better baselines: The NCAER–DPIIT study used GSTN data to put logistics cost at 7.97% of GDP for 2023–24 [2]. The NTDR could update this figure regularly.

Governance concerns

• Privacy and surveillance: FASTag and Vahan records can trace individual vehicles, and no safeguards have been announced [1]. This conflicts with the DPDP Act, 2023, which limits data use to its stated purpose, and with the Puttaswamy privacy right.
• Legal ambiguity: No enabling Act or nodal ministry has been named [1], so ITLA's power to make ministries share data is unclear.
• Federal friction: Urban mobility is largely a state and city subject, and no mechanism for state buy-in has been named [1].
• Duplication: PAIMANA already monitors 1,702 central projects worth ₹150 crore or more [4]. A parallel ITLA system would make ministries report the same data twice.
• Insight without power: ITLA only does technical appraisal. Financial appraisal stays with the existing mechanisms [1], so findings from the data may not change funding decisions.

Overall, the NTDR's value is real, but it depends on governance. Measures that would secure it include:

• anonymised, aggregated data under DPDP-compliant rules;
• statutory backing;
• data-sharing agreements with states;
• taking monitoring data from PAIMANA instead of copying it.

With these in place, ITLA can deliver the competitive logistics system that Viksit Bharat 2047 needs [1] while upholding citizens' privacy under Article 21.