Analysing barriers of sustainable transportation systems in India using Grey-DEMATEL approach: A supply chain perspective

Sustainable transportation systems are the need for sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). This study presents a model to analyse the causal relationship and prioritisation of the barriers that exist within sustainable transportation systems in India. Appropriate barriers were identified based on the literature survey and as well as discussions with experts and decision-makers. The model addresses barriers to all major dimensions of sustainable transportation systems, namely economic, social-political, environmental, and technical. A total of 22 barriers were identified, and causal relationships among these barriers were envisioned by adopting the Grey-based decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) methodology. The Grey-based method can be used to handle uncertainty and ambiguity in decision-making. And, DEMATEL is adopted for identifying cause-effect relationships among several barriers to understand the problem properly. The application of the introduced model has been presented. The results reveal that the model effectively assesses and analyzes the barriers of sustainable transportation systems and has practical relevance.