Vasco: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari has stated that his dream is to start more sea-plane services so that citizens would not have to depend on airports. If all goes well, he said, sea-planes will fly from Juhu beach in Mumbai to Goa, and this will attract more tourists to the State.
Gadkari also stated that the Shipping Ministry has been laying more emphasis on boosting inland waterways to reduce road traffic, and thus, it is important that the State government frame a policy to start floating jetties.
“It would be better if five- and three-stars hotels in Goa also come up with their own floating jetties so that tourists can come to the cruise terminal at MPT by special bus and go directly to their hotels using inland waterways,” said Gadkari, adding that sea planes could also go directly to the floating jetties of the hotels.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the capital dredging of the MPT navigational channel from the present draft of 14 meters to 19.5 meters. The work was awarded to Dredging Corporation of India at MPT on Friday. The project costs around Rs 193 crore and will increase the handling capacity of Mormugao Port by 2 million tons annually. “We have a dedicated cruise berth at MPT, plus a new cruise terminal building is under-construction and will be completed by October 2016. Our aim is to encourage tourism-related activities, which has very high spin-off benefits, particularly in terms of employment-generation. This can be achieved if we have good inland waterway systems everywhere, including Goa. It is also important that the State government comes up with floating jetties, and we are ready to give subsidy for creating such facilities,” said Gadkari.
Highlighting the importance of inland waterways, he stated, “Inland waterways are recognised as fuel-efficient, cost-effective and environment-friendly modes of transport. Thus, the Lok Sabha has unanimously passed the National Waterways Bill, 2015, under which the total number of national waterways will go up to 111 from the existing five, and this also includes major rivers of Goa. Once the project is completed, I am sure that there will be more traffic on waterways than on roads. Also, as Goa has high potential in the tourism sector, one needs to understand the importance of having marinas in Goa.”
