Maharashtra Government and the Railways will sign an agreement to develop intra-state rail linkages to promote industrial development, according to Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Speaking on the occasion of the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd and Dighi Port Ltd to develop a 34 km railway line connecting the port to Roha, the minister observed that railway connectivity will bring huge benefit to the State and overall development of the country.

He added that the State and Railways could possibly consider railway links between parts of Vidarbha and Gadchiroli, Kolhapur to Vaibhavwadi, Karad to Chiplun.

Agreements to develop intra-state rail linkages will be signed with other States also.

“We have 7,600 kms of coastline in the country, of which Maharashtra has 720 kms of coastline. Maharashtra has 10 per cent of India’s landmass, 10 per cent of India’s population, and almost 10 per cent of the country’s coastline. So, if Maharashtra grows by 20 per cent, India will definitely grow by 12-13 per cent,” Prabhu said.

Pointing out that the coastline of Maharashtra is all in Konkan, he said, unfortunately, this region is not yet linked to the developed part (Western Maharashtra) of the State.

If the four dots – Konkan, Western Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Marathwada – are not connected to each other, holistic development will not happen.

“Fortunately, there are relative advantages – Konkan has ports but doesn’t have industrialisation; Western Maharashtra has entrepreneurship but doesn’t have ports; Vidarbha has huge natural resources like cotton but doesn’t have ports; Marathwada, with all the ancient traditions and huge development potential, again is not connected to ports.

“So, if you can connect the ports to other parts of the state, Maharashtra will grow faster and will make India grow faster,” said Prabhu, who is four-time Member of Parliament from Rajapur constituency in Konkan.

He emphasised that the Government wants to bring in a new concept of development, which the Prime Minister has articulated, whereby the country needs not just development of ports but ports-led development to promote trade and commerce.

“We are planning to develop large number of ports through joint ventures and Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. And to make that happen faster we have decided now to come out with a new model concession agreement.

“…We also intend to set our self a target whereby clearance (regulatory/ environment) must be given within a particular period. This is not a favour we are doing to anybody,” explained Prabhu.

Meanwhile, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, a Special Purpose Vehicle of the centre, and Dighi Port, promoted by Balaji Infra Projects Ltd, IL&FS, and Mahrashtra Maritime Board, will jointly develop the 34 km railway line comprising 11 major bridges and 5 tunnels at a cost of about Rs 800 crore.

Dighi Port, currently, has a cargo handling capacity of 15 million tonnes and this will be ramped up to 30 million tonnes by the end of this year, said Vijay Kalantri, CMD, Balaji Infra Projects. The capacity is expected to go up to 100 million tonnes by 2022.

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