Announcing the Centre's plans to inject Rs 25 lakh crore to strengthen inland waterways, ports and rail-road links, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said these projects will create four crore jobs as the focus of the NDA government is to uplift the poor.
"Our aim is to develop rail-road connectivity, inland waterways and ports. A host of projects are being taken up to achieve this at an investment of Rs 25 lakh crore," said Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, who was in the state for the celebrations of two years of Modi-led NDA government.
While works involving Rs 2.5 lakh crore have already been taken up, projects worth Rs 5 lakh crore would be kicked off shortly, the minister said adding all these projects undertaken would generate around four crore employment for the youth.
Stating that both road and rail connectivity to ports was the key to speedy economic growth, he said an amount of Rs 8 lakh crore would be invested for development of the port sector to make transportation of goods and raw materials for industries cost effective.
The 12 public ports in the country have made an overall profit of Rs 6,000 crore this year and the government aims to raise the profit up to Rs 35,000-40,000 crore in four years, the minster said.
Describing connectivity between mineral belts and ports important for development, Gadkari said a sum of Rs 4 lakh crore would be spent for the development of port-rail connectivity.
Similarly, an investment of around Rs 15 lakh crore would be made for development of the highway sector, which plays a crucial role for economic growth, the Minister said.
He said the Centre has taken concrete steps to accelerate the pace of road construction, which has been enhanced to 24-25 km per day from the earlier level of 2 km per day. The target is to raise it further to 41 km per day.
Lamenting that inland waterways was yet to be developed properly in India, Gadkari said while over 40 per cent transportation was done through this sector in countries like China, Korea and European nations, in India it stood at a meagre 3.5 per cent and has now gone up to 6 per cent.
Therefore, the government has chalked out an ambitious plan to galvanise the inland waterways involving rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra and Mahanadi, the minister said adding Rs 4,000 crore was being spent for developing waterway facilities in Ganga.
(REOPENS DEL 59)
Gadkari said policy initiatives and other measures have resulted in unlocking Rs 3.8 lakh crore of stalled projects.
He expressed happiness that bankers and and private players' interest in the road sector has revived.
He is clear that there is no question of scrapping toll fees and people need to pay for the same if they want to avail better services.
The minister sees immense potential of waterways in the country, including cruise tourism, and the government is working to give a push in this direction. The government has already approved conversion of 111 rivers across the country into waterways.
"Work on 20 inland waterway projects will start soon," the minister added.
Emphasis is on port rail connectivity projects and works worth Rs 22,000 crore are being undertaken through Port Rail Corporation.
Indian Port Rail Corporation (IPRCL), which has been set up to take up last-mile rail connectivity for ports, have taken up 25 works across 9 major ports. Of this, 4 have already been awarded and 9 more are in the pipeline for the remaining part of 2016-17.
Out of the final list of 27 rail connectivity projects identified under Sagarmala, 21 for 3,300 km worth Rs 28,000 crore are being taken up by the Ministry of Railways and 6 worth Rs 3,590 crore are to be taken up either in Non-Government Rail (NGR) or JV model through IPRCL.
The ambitious Sagarmala project is under way under which five coastal economic zones are being developed.
The idea is to reduce logistics cost for exim and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment and Sagarmala aspires to reduce logistics costs leading to overall cost savings of Rs 35,000-40,000 crore per annum.
As part of Sagarmala, more than 400 projects, at an estimated infrastructure investment of more than Rs 8 lakh crore, have been identified.
Master plans have been finalised for the 12 major ports and based on the same, 142 port capacity expansion projects worth Rs 91,434 crore have been identified for implementation over the next 20 years.
"Out of this, 30 projects worth Rs 11,612 crore have been proposed for implementation starting 2016-17," he said.
In addition, 6 new port locations have been identified and will be developed - Vadhavan, Enayam, Sagar Island, Paradip Outer Harbour, Sirkazhi, and Belekeri.
Seventy-nine road connectivity projects have been identified under Sagarmala and will be taken up, including 18 projects under Bharatmala scheme.
An Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has also been formed to develop a strategy and implementation road map for coastal shipping of coal and other commodities and products, he said.
