Govt. for supportive infra to inland waterways, port sector
In the Union Budget 2016-17, the government has given a clear emphasis on improving the country’s infrastructure by giving a major impetus to all forms of transport infrastructure. Encouraged by the country’s port’s cargo handling performance last year, the government ensured that it made sufficient provisions to improve port infrastructure, as a step to woo the industry. As a part of such move, the Ministry of Shipping on Thursday informed about a few decisions that were taken in this regard. The Ministry informed that it has created a supportive infrastructure to the Cochin port, owing to its connectivity to international shipping centres (located around 50 nautical miles from the international shipping routes between Europe and Far East /Australia and Gulf and Far East/Australia). Under such a move, the government has taken measures to improve the existing ‘International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam, which was a Public Private Partnership (PPP) venture with Dubai Port World (DPW) being its private partner. Measures taken by the government towards improving terminal performance and ease connectivity concerns, include:
- providing a 17.2 km 4-lane road for container trucks to reach the terminal from the NH 47 and NH 17 without getting into the city roads and
- an 8.6 km long railway link line connecting the terminal to the national grid, among others.
Towards development of inland waterways, the government has drafted a National Perspective Plan (NPP), prepared under the Sagarmala Programme, which proposes priority development of National Waterways-1, 2, 4 and 5 to enhance port connectivity to the hinterland and to enable faster and cheaper movement of key cargo types such as coal, iron ore, food grains, among others.
March 04, 2016| 07:31pm IST.
to success.