For years, it was the right idea with fragmented execution.

Road carried too much. Rail was underused. Ports were siloed. Inland waterways were largely an aspiration. And logistics costs stayed stubbornly high — well above global benchmarks — because modes never really talked to each other.

That is changing, visibly and fast.

Transport Logistic India and Air Cargo India 2026 — which ran together for the first time at Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai this month — sent a clear signal. More than 8,100 industry professionals, 230+ brands from 38 countries, airlines alongside port operators alongside tech firms alongside policymakers. All under one roof. That doesn't happen by accident.

The message coming out of the floor and the conference tracks was consistent: India is moving from siloed modal operations to connected, multimodal chains — and the infrastructure pipeline is now real enough to take seriously. Maharashtra's Vadhavan Port, the proposed Mumbai third airport, the Samruddhi Expressway, the Atal Setu — these aren't proposals anymore. They are construction milestones.

What this means practically: logistics costs in India have historically run high because manufacturing clusters are far from export gateways, and goods had to move inefficiently through disconnected handoffs. A multimodal system — goods on rail from Tier-2 hubs, handed to a port, tracked on a platform like ULIP, last-mile on road — compresses that cost and shortens timelines.

For operators and shippers, the question is not whether multimodal is coming. It is whether your systems, documentation, and planning workflows are ready to work across modes — or whether you're still running a single-mode operation in a multi-mode world.

The PM's visit to Kolkata on March 14 was not a ribbon-cutting exercise. It was a signal about India's eastern corridor strategy.

Projects inaugurated and laid that day: ₹18,700 crore spanning roads, railways, and ports.

On roads: Over 420 km of National Highway work across West Bengal and Jharkhand — sections of NH-19 and NH-114 — plus new bridges over the Kangsabati and Shilabati rivers. The Kharagpur–Moregram Expressway, when complete, will reshape freight corridors across large parts of the state.

On ports: Mechanisation of Berth No. 2 at Haldia Dock Complex — making cargo handling faster and more environment-friendly — alongside a rejuvenation project at Khidderpore Docks and augmentation of cargo-handling capacity at Kidderpore Dock. The Bascule Bridge in the Kolkata Dock System also gets a renovation.

On rail: The Purulia–Anand Vihar Terminal Express, new Automatic Block Signalling between Kalaikunda and Kanimohuli, six stations redeveloped under the Amrit Bharat Scheme, and a new third rail line between Belda and Dantan.

Taken together, this is multimodal infrastructure investment at scale — targeting the same eastern corridor that posted record port numbers just a fortnight ago.

The read for logistics professionals: The eastern gateway of India is being upgraded across every mode simultaneously. For businesses routing through Kolkata or Haldia, the capacity, speed, and reliability of this corridor will look meaningfully different 18–24 months from now. Plan accordingly.

Two weeks ago, Shanghai–Rotterdam spot rates were one price. This week, they are 19% higher.

That is not a typo. Drewry's World Container Index (March 12) showed Shanghai–Rotterdam rising 19% week-on-week to $2,443/FEU and Shanghai–Genoa up 10% to $3,120/FEU. MSC and CMA CGM have already announced higher FAK rates effective March 22.

The market that your annual freight contracts were negotiated against no longer exists.

This is the problem with static logistics planning in a volatile environment. Annual contracts get signed in Q1. Rates are locked. Carriers blank-sail to manage supply. A geopolitical event closes a chokepoint. Surcharges arrive before the alert does. By the time your finance team flags the variance, the damage is done.

The logistics leaders managing this well have one thing in common: they have real-time visibility into what is moving, what it is costing, and what the alternatives are. Not a weekly report. Not a spreadsheet reconciled at month-end. Actual live data, by trip, by route, by vendor.

This is precisely what HashLog's HashTMS is built for — giving you cost visibility at the trip level so that when the market moves, you are reading the signal in real-time, not in the rear-view mirror. In a market where rates move 19% in a week, the gap between "we have a TMS" and "we have visibility" is the difference between reacting and preparing.

The Strait of Hormuz isn't reopening anytime soon. The industry has accepted that now.

What's more interesting is what's being built in its place.

<invoke name="web_fetch">Following the closure triggered by US-Israel strikes on Iran (Feb 28), CMA CGM — one of the world's largest carriers — has deployed what it is calling emergency multimodal solutions: a network of sea, rail, and road corridors designed to move cargo into and out of the Gulf without touching the Strait.

The architecture is elegant in its pragmatism. Ports south of the Hormuz chokepoint — Khor Fakkan, Fujairah, and Sohar — become the new entry gateways. From there, road and feeder networks carry goods to UAE hubs (Khalifa, Jebel Ali, Sharjah) and onward across the Gulf. For Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq, the Jeddah corridor on the Red Sea offers a second bypass — road bridges from Jeddah reaching across to Dammam and beyond. Omani ports add a third route entirely.

CMA CGM has also resumed bookings for Gulf countries — suspended since March 3 — using these multimodal arrangements.

Why this matters specifically for Indian exporters:

CMA CGM has simultaneously revamped its India–East Africa KARIBU service (effective March 2026), adding direct calls at Mundra and Cochin and integrating former SWAHILI routes. Indian ports — Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Cochin, Chennai — now connect to East African hubs like Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, and Zanzibar with improved frequency.

But the Gulf disruption creates a different challenge. India's exports to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait — some of its largest trading partners — all transited through the now-closed Strait. The multimodal bypass adds cost and time. For Indian shippers without flexibility in routing, this compounds what is already a difficult quarter.

The broader principle at work here: the industry is no longer treating disruption as an exception to be managed. It is treating it as the baseline to be designed around. CMA CGM's move is not a contingency plan. It is a new operating model.

Your supply chain should be too.

Noida International Airport (Jewar) — March 28 Launch India's newest major airport is set to open on March 28, with PM Modi invited to inaugurate. It already holds its DGCA aerodrome licence. Phase 1: one runway, ~12 million passengers per year, with domestic flights and cargo operations from day one. For logistics operators in NCR, this changes the air freight equation — and provides relief to Delhi's congested Indira Gandhi International Airport.

India's Port Expansion: Scaling Risk Faster Than Capacity A sharp observation doing the rounds in industry circles this fortnight: India's port expansion programme is adding capacity at pace, but the complexity of managing multiple new terminals, changing trade routes, and digital integration requirements means operational risk is scaling faster than physical capacity. Ports that are growing quickly without investing in systems and process resilience are building tomorrow's bottlenecks today.

Air Cargo Severely Strained — The Other Gulf Fallout The Gulf airspace restrictions (Feb 28 – Mar 3) caused more than 9,500 flight cancellations across Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Global air cargo capacity is now under significant strain — with grounded fleets, minimal airport operations, and restricted airspace across the region. Shippers relying on air freight for Gulf-bound high-value goods should expect both delays and rate pressure through Q2.

19% Week-on-week rise in Shanghai–Rotterdam spot container rates (Drewry WCI, March 12, 2026). The post-CNY lull the market was counting on never arrived.

₹18,700 crore Infrastructure investment in eastern India's road, rail, and port network — inaugurated in a single day, March 14, 2026. The eastern corridor is being built out at a speed that most planning models haven't accounted for.

9,500+ Commercial flights cancelled across Gulf hubs between Feb 28 and March 3 due to Middle East airspace restrictions. The ripple effects on air cargo capacity and rates will be felt well into Q2.

Signals by HashLog is published fortnightly for logistics, supply chain, and transportation leaders. To explore how HashTMS or ZingTrak can help your operation navigate these shifts — Book a Demo.

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