The Central government plans to increase the share of inland waterways in goods and passenger traffic from the current meagre 3.5 per cent to 15 per cent by the end of its five-year term, and will wor
The Central government plans to increase the share of inland waterways in goods and passenger traffic from the current meagre 3.5 per cent to 15 per cent by the end of its five-year term, and will work on developing three major ports by the end of 2016, shipping and transport minister Nitin Gadkari said.
“The coastal shipping system, which is most cost effective, has to be made development oriented, and there is a need to implement fast-track decision-making which will come about only when people change their mindset,” Mr Gadkari said while inaugurating a conference on ‘Coastal Shipping and Inland Waterways,’ organised by Assocham.
The government will invest Rs 20,000 crore on the three ports —Wadhwan port in Dahanu, Maharashtra, Colachel port in Kerala and the Sagar port in Gujarat. It will come out with tenders before March this year and will start work on breakwater by April-May.
Mr Gadkari said that the private consultant hired to study 12 major ports and three main organisations, namely Shipping Corporation, Dredging Corporation and Cochin Shipyard “had given the report with 120 suggestions, of which we have implemented about 18-20 and they are reviewed every month.”
He said, “This is the first year in India’s history where all our 12 major ports and three organisations have recorded profits which will be more than Rs 6,000 crore.”
Addressing a press conference later to release the the Assocham-SREI joint study on infrastructure through PPP mode, Assocham president Sunil Kanoria said that India had the highest number of public private partnership in the world.
“Currently there are about 480 investment projects under construction in the PPP mode in various other segments – SEZ, ports, energy, water sanitation, airports, tourism, healthcare, cold chain and others,” he said.
