India's six-place jump to the 38th rank among 139 countries in the global logistics index is indicative of improvement in logistics efficiency. The cost of logistics in the country, however, continues to be quite high, in the range of 14 to 16% as compared to 8 to 10% in China and 12% in European countries and the United States. Improvements in waterways have unlocked the opportunity of further reducing logistics costs, but investors’ confidence in using those remains a key determinant. High logistics costs in the country are attributed to roads being the primary mode of goods transport. Official data shows that in India, 70% of goods are transported by road, which is the most expensive mode of transport, followed by railway, while waterways are the cheapest mode. India and Bangladesh have already operationalized agreements and also finalized the Standard Operating Procedure, clearing the decks for movement of goods for India through waterways, rail, road, or multi-modal transport through 16 routes to enable access to the northeast region via Bangladesh sea ports—Chittagong and Mongla—and the Indo-Bangla Protocol route. The successful completion of the trial ship movement demonstrated the availability of the required depth after dredging of the river routes, signalling to stakeholders in logistics the viability of using the waterways to transport goods to the northeast region. The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan launched in 2021 and the National Logistics Policy unveiled in 2022 have triggered fresh hopes of transformation in the logistics landscape and more use of waterways, particularly Inland Water Transport (IWT), towards reducing the carbon footprint of freight movement. The current share of IWT in India is only two percent, while Maritime India Vision 2030 envisages increasing it to five percent through improved use of 5000 km of navigable inland waterways under various stages of development. According to the vision document, the country’s maritime sector plays a crucial role in its overall trade and growth, with 95% of the trade volume and 65% of the trade value being undertaken through maritime transport. The report of the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) 2022, the annual survey undertaken by the Logistics Division of the Department for Promotion of Industrial and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, to assess the logistics ecosystem, highlighted that though efforts are being made to develop connectivity and build infrastructure in the northeast region, in states other than Assam it will take some time for a modal shift in logistics. The key reason in the course of the survey is that the region, being a consumption economy, has little to offer for return cargo, which makes it a high-cost logistics territory. Lack of major industries and production centres across the entire region discourages logistics infrastructure development, and the States’ difficult terrain makes operation and management of logistics challenging. This is another explanation included in the report about the region lagging behind in logistics. For the North Eastern States, limited access points, mostly via the long distance and inefficient ecosystems in West Bengal, and logistics development centred primarily around Assam only increase the time and cost of cargo movement to and from the region, which apparently is one of the key reasons why key players in the logistics sector are not showing much interest in investment in the region. The worry over the return cargo going empty has prevented most stakeholders from exploring the IWT potential created in the region. States in the region can play a crucial role in changing the situation, not in isolation, by joining hands to present the region as a contiguous and single economic zone. States synchronising initiatives for the creation of a supply chain and planning it as part of the larger networked supply chain connecting all states can help traders aggregate products that have high demand in other states in the domestic market or in the export market on a large scale and utilise IWT services to send back the container bringing in supplies of essential commodities to the region filled with products from the region. The region is coming out of the mindset barrier of a net-importer state and looking at the new transborder multimodal connectivity through Bangladesh and Myanmar as opportunities to unlock the market potential of unique products from the region. Prioritising IWT and sea routes through Chittagong and Mongla ports in Bangladesh and Sittwe port in Myanmar for marketing products from the region is essential for achieving the goals of decarbonizing the transport sector. This requires the state to stop looking at the market potential of their products in silos and instead identify commercially viable sources of the same products in neighbouring states to facilitate aggregation, with an eye on using the IWT route to cut down on transportation costs. Due to the high transport costs by road or railway, the prices of products from the region are quite high and fail to compete with the same products from other regions. The Northeast needs a new roadmap for logistics.