Govt to spend Rs 70,000 crore on 12 major ports: Gadkari

NEW DELHI, October 5: The Sagarmala Project, aimed at port-led development in coastal areas, is bound to boost the country's economy and the government has lined up about Rs 70,000 crore for its 12 major ports only, Indian Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday. "Ports play a pivotal role in boosting the country's economic growth. Logistic cost has to be reduced. Our logistic cost is thrice than China's. We are not able to compete with global markets... "When Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called the meeting of industry leaders, a leading industrialist said Mumbai to London travel is cheaper than Mumbai to Delhi. Sagarmala will address all these issue by port-led development programmes," Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Gadkari said after chairing the first meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) here. Gadkari said the project is aimed at development of coastal states through modernisation, mechanisation and computerisation and would create huge employment besides boosting the country's GDP. "Ports will play huge role in double digit GDP target and port, shipping and highways sector will very soon add 2 percent to the country's GDP," he said. He added that about Rs 70,000 crore would be spent on development of major ports only which have received 104 suggestions from international consultants to increase efficiency. Once implemented, this will result in cargo traffic increasing three-fold while the ports will also go under performance audit, the Minister said. He added that at "Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone, there are investment proposals for Rs 4,000 crore, which will provide employment to 1.5 lakh youth." He said the government is focusing on waterways as transport through rivers is much cheaper and costs barely 30-40 paise per km in comparison to Rs 1 through railways and Rs 1.5 through roads. "Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd in Odisha is expanding its output capacity to 260 million tonnes from the present 60 million tonnes and if the coal is transported through water, this will save Rs 7,000 crore annually," he added. He said two ports - Kandla and Paradip - were being developed into Green smart cities and the government is eyeing at Rs 4,500 profit from ports this fiscal. Gadkari said the Prime Minister's emphasis is on "cooperative federalism" and Chief Ministers of states like Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha, who attended the NSAC meet, came out with many good proposals. Government also aims to promote tourism and fishery under Sagarmala, he said, adding that there are 290 light houses and 1,300 islands in the country which could be developed.