OREANDA-NEWS. August 13, 2015. Union Minister of Shipping and Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that the Sagarmala initiative of the Government will immensely help in generating new employment opportunities and push up growth of the country. He was addressing meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Members of Parliament attached to the Ministry of Shipping in New Delhi last evening. He said the prime objective of the initiative is to promote port-led direct and indirect development and to provide infrastructure for transporting goods to and from ports efficiently and cost-effectively. He said the initiative needs to be strongly supported as it will place the ports as focal points for industrial growth and economic development.

Shri Gadkari underlined that the transportation through waterways is much cheaper compared to road and rail transport. He added that India has vast untapped potential of using rivers for transportation. In this regard he said the decision to enact central legislation to declare 101 additional Inland Waterways as National Waterways (NW) for navigation will go a long way in transforming transport sector in the country. The Minister called for suggestions from the MPs on Sagarmala project and developing inland waterways.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Shipping and Road Transport & Highways Shri Pon Radhakrishnan said the recommendations from the members will help in strengthening the project.

A presentation was also made on the occasion. The project shall aim to develop access to new development regions with intermodal solutions and promotion of the optimum modal split, enhanced connectivity with the main economic centres and beyond through expansion of the rail, inland water, coastal and road services.

Development activities under port-led direct development include ship building and repair, fisheries, refineries, core industries, thermal power projects, Petrol, oil & Lubricants (POL) and chemical-based industries, captive industries, cement plants and capital goods industry. Activities under port-led indirect development includes connectivity projects such as roads, railways, airports, pipeline networks to cater to port based multi product/sector specific Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Free Trade Warehousing Zones (FTWZs)/ Special Investment Region (SIRs) etc.

The Members of Parliament who were present included Shri A. Arunmozhithevan, Shri Advocate Narendra Keshav Sawaikar, Shri Anandrao Vithoba Adsul, Smt. Anupriya Patel, Shri Bheemrao Baswanthrao Patil, Shri C.R.Chaudhary, Shri Ganesh Singh , Shri J.C.Diwakar Reddy, Shri Jagdambika Pal, Dr. Kalamani Samal, Shri K. Prabhakar Reddy, Shri M. Rajamohan Reddy, Shri Mohammad Salim, Smt. Neelam Sonkar, Shri P. C. Gaddigoudar, Shri Prathap Simha, Shri Sisir Kumar Adhikari, Shri A.K.Selvaraj, Dr. Chandan Mitra, Shri G.Mohan Rao, Shri Ishwarlal Shankalal Jain and Shri P. Bhattacharya.