Maharashtra is going to get Rs 95,000 crore port-related projects under the Centre’s ambitious port and port-led development programme.
Maharashtra is going to get Rs 95,000 crore port-related projects under the Centre’s ambitious port and port-led development programme.
Addressing a video-link press conference of coastal states from Mumbai on Friday, Union minister for shipping Nitin Gadkari said the mega projects include two expressways connecting Ahmedabad-Mumbai industrial corridor and the Sanathnagar industrial cluster near Hyderabad with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai. Mr Gadkari said while the Ahmedabad Expressway project would cost Rs 18,000 crore, the Hyderabad–Mumbai project is likely to cost Rs 22,000 crore. In addition, a new green field port is being set up at Wadhavan near Dahanu with an investment outlay of Rs 9,300 crore, Mr Gadkari said.
He also announced that as part of the port-based industrialisation programme, a steel cluster would be coming up in southern Maharashtra and Goa region with an investment potential of Rs 10,500 crore.
Mr Gadkari reiterated the government’s resolve to increase the share of water transport as means of providing competitive logistics support for the Make In India programme. He said, “The share of water transport which was 3.5 per cent when our government took over, has now reached 6 per cent and we want to take it further to 15 per cent.”
The minister said more than 140 agreements worth Rs 83,000 crores were signed during the Maritime India Summit held in Mumbai in April. “Our plan is to develop 27 industrial clusters which will attract investments worth Rs 8 lakh crore. Thus combined with Rs 4 lakh infrastructure investment, the port and water transport sector would contribute Rs 12 lakh crore projects to the economy,” Mr Gadkari said.
