Around 2,100 kilometre of coastal roads have been identified to be built along the 7,500 km coastline
Nikita Vashisht
October 25, 2017 / 04:40 PM IST
Nitin Gadkari
Union minister for road transport and highways and shipping, Nitin Gadkari today said that he wishes to integrate the two flagship infrastructure programmes—Bharatmala and Sagarmala—for holistic development of the country.
Speaking to the media in New Delhi, the minister said that he wanted to develop roads near ports to provide seamless movement of cargo.
“We have identified various ports under Bharatmala, which can be integrated with Sagarmala’s development plan,” said Gadkari.
Bharatmala is an “umbrella” programme of the ministry to enhance road connectivity across country while Sagarmala is the government’s flagship programme to develop and modernise ports along the coast line.
Bharatmala Pariyojana, which received the cabinet’s nod on Tuesday for phase I for a capital outlay of Rs 5.35 lakh crore, envisions to invest Rs 20,000 crore for the development of roads around ports.
Related stories
“Port development under Sagarmala will be done through Bharatmala,” said Gadkari.
The union minister said that Indian ports are “profitable” but lack the required “connectivity” to carry freight.
Around 2,100 kilometre of coastal roads have been identified to be built along the 7,500 km coastline.
“Around 2,000 km of port connectivity roads have been identified to facilitate export-import trade with an emphasis to improve connectivity to non-major ports,” said the ministry’s statement.
Sagarmala is a Rs 16 lakh crore project which includes port connectivity, port mechanisation and modernisation. Establishing industrial clusters around developed ports is also a part of the programme.
Throwing light on the importance of two flagship scheme of his ministries, Gadkari said, “Sagarmala aur Bharatmala do alag yojana hain... Lekin inhe varmala bana ke desh ko dene ki humari koshish hai” (Sagarmala and Bharatmala are two different programmes. But, our efforts are to present it as a garland for the whole country.”)
The minister said that all these schemes would, together, contribute two to three percent to the country’s gross domestic product by 2019.
Nikita Vashisht
first published: Oct 25, 2017 04:40 pm
Discover the latest business news, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
`); } if (res.stay_updated) { $(".stay-updated-ajax").html(res.stay_updated); } } catch (error) { console.log('Error in video', error); } } }) }, 8000); })
