New Delhi, July 10 -- India's logistics costs for the mining and metals sector may be much lower than the widely cited estimates, but weak first-and last-mile connectivity and heavy dependence on road transport continue to hurt the sector's competitiveness, former NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat said on Friday.

Speaking at the FICCI conference on "Enhancing Competitiveness of Mining and Metals", Saraswat said logistics costs for the sector "may be far closer to 8 per cent of GDP than the widely cited 14 per cent figure," even though key structural bottlenecks remain unresolved.

"Bulk freight bottlenecks and mining-specific evacuation gaps are still real and costly," he said, identifying inadequate first-and last-mile connectivity from mi...