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“My vision for transport is giving highest priority for inland waterways and coastal shipping, second to railways and third for road movement,” said the Union Minister for Road Transport, Shipping and Highways.
Urging the private sector to participate in waterways infrastructure projects in the public-private partnership, he said nearly half the passenger and goods movement in China is on water and about 40-45 per cent in Europe, Korea and Japan.
In India, just about 6 per cent of people and goods movement is over water, which is more cost effective compared to road movement. The Centre is looking at ways to use 111 rivers into waterways and work has started on the Ganga. Plan for the Buckingham Canal is ready to be implemented in PPP mode and “we need your co-operation,” he said in an interaction with chief executives of major companies organised by BusinessLine .
At the lively interaction moderated by BusinessLine Editor, Raghavan Srinivasan, Gadkari said the ₹4,000-crore project on the Ganga involves creation of multimodal infrastructure at Varanasi and Haldia and facility for RoRo in five places.
In Tamil Nadu, “you are transporting cars to North by road and now have started to transport cars by ships to reduce logistics cost. I request the industry to first take the initiative — I will help address problems — to start transport by waterways, especially coastal traffic to North and West. This is the sector where there is lot of potential,” he said.
Funds will not be a problem for developing inland waterways and coastal shipping, Gadkari assured the gathering.
For the first time in the history of the country all 12 major ports and three flagship companies, including Kochi Shipyard, Shipping Corporation of India, have reported profit of more than ₹6,000 crore and the profits are likely to increase to ₹8,000 crore next year.
Including the profits, fixed deposits and capability to raise loans there is a potential for ₹ 12 lakh crore available to fund development of waterways, he said.
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