Union Minister for Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said his ministry has signed an MOU with Railway Vikas Nigam Limited for new port connectivity.
"We have signed an MoU with Railway Vikas Nigam Limited and formed a new cooperation with the railways for new port connectivity," Gadkari said.
"This corporation will work for connecting port to national highway," he added.
Gadkari said that 40 projects, amounting to Rs. 2400 crore, have been selected, adding that these projects would be studied and started later this year.
"We have given a proposal to banks, that you give us loans in dollars and we will return it in dollars and will save approximately nine percent of interest on this which will benefit us in thousands of crores. This will be used for the development of ports, development of Railway Corporation, shipping yards, sheds, etc," Gadkari said.
"The major objectives of this port connectivity are last mile connectivity to leisure projects, Modernisation of infrastructure of ports, to operate and manage internal railway system and to raise financial resources for funding railway projects," he added.
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Gadkari also spoke about the Sagarmala project, which is aimed at port-led development in coastal states.
"This project is to maximise capacity of Indian ports, modernise the ports and to develop system" said Gadkari.
He further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is of the view that ports should be converted into smart city.
"The Prime Minister has also asked us to convert ports into smart city," Gadkari said.
"These smart cities will be green cities and we will make bio diesel with the residue of edible oil. So, there will be less pollution," he added while asserting that there would be proper housing, colleges and gardens in the smart city.