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The Indian Railways will establish around 500 multi-modal cargo terminals with an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore under the PM GatiShakti programme in four-five years with the objective of integrating different modes of transportation for smooth movement of both bulk cargo like coal and steel, as well as parcel cargo.
"The PM GatiShakti multi-modal cargo terminals of railways will be terminals where different modes of transportation will be integrated at one place. There will be seamless integration wherever possible of roads, airways, waterways, or any other hybrid means, with the railway transportation network,” said Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at a media briefing on Thursday.
There will also be multimodal transportation facilitation for passengers, with various integrations being worked out such as joining metros with railways and railways with airways, the Minister said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched the ‘PM GatiShakti - National Master Plan’ for multi-modal connectivity to economic zones, with ambitious goals in the areas of road, railways, aviation, clean energy and digital connectivity. The idea behind the plan is to speed up implementation of infrastructure projects worth Rs 100 lakh crore across the country at both the Central and State levels, to bring down logistics costs.
Vaishnaw said the Railways would contribute significantly towards the initiative. ''The Railways will have the most significant contribution in it (GatiShakti)...The most important thing is how can we convert Railway cargo terminals to multi-modal cargo terminals,'' he said.
The government plans to create around 200 multi-modal cargo terminals in the next three years, Vaishnaw said.
''Some may cost even less than Rs 100 crore, some may be more. But we are assuming Rs 100 crore per terminal as the budget,'' he added.
The Railways is laying optical fibre along 68,000 km of railway lines, he said. ''Gati Shakti will also include a project wherein we will develop how one can use this fibre for other modes or logistic services,'' the Minister said.
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