PANJIM: With just five months before Goa elects a new Legislative Assembly, Union Minister for Shipping and Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday announced to complete works worth Rs 20,000 crore in the coastal State in the next two years.
Asserting that the Central Government is working in coordination with the State to rank Goa as number one, he said, “Whatever Goa government has demanded in last two and half years we have completed 200 percent of their demand.” Gadkari also announced another Rs 300 crore project of eight kilometers long highway connecting the proposed international airport at Mopa.
“In the last three months we have sanctioned lot of schemes to the State. In the next two years we will be completing works of more than Rs 20,000 crore for Goa,” the Union Minister said.
“We are the fastest growing economy in the world. The most important thing for our economic development is our ports. By developing ports we are creating employment potential and at the same time involving in industrial development,” he said.
“The Ministry is more focused towards development of waterways as it wants to reduce the road traffic. The second priority is railway development and then the roads,” the Minister said.
Gadkari said that when the Union government took over there were 240 kms of highways in Goa but now it is 597 kms. “Chief Minister has already requested me to have eight km long highway connecting Mopa airport, I have already sanctioned that. The cost of the project is Rs 300 crore and it will be funded by the Ministry,” he said.
The Union Minister urged the State to identify ‘black spots’ (accident-prone zones), for which the Centre would provide funds for development. “We are identifying accidental black spots. We have already invested money for improvement of 786 black spots. States should identity the black spots, we will definitely give money to improve them, it will save lives,” he said.
In a bid to increase the capacity of the boat cruise facility, the Union Ministry under the all India programme will tie up with the Singapore Cruise Corporation for development of facilities across India.
Gadkari said the government has proposed to reduce the logistics cost. “For industrial development we are trying to reduce the logistics cost. In China, the logistics cost is only 8 to 12 per cent, in European countries it is 12 per cent and in India it is 18 per cent,” he said.
“That is one of the reason why we are not competitive in the world market,” Gadkari said, adding that to achieve the dream of ‘Make in India’ there is need to develop industrial clusters.
The Minister said that under Sagar Mala project they are expecting an investment of Rs 12 lakh crore of which Rs 4 lakh crore is for infrastructure, Rs 2 lakh crore is for port road connectivity, Rs 1 lakh crore for port rail connectivity, Rs 1 lakh crore for modernisation and mechanization of ports. “Rs 8 lakh crore will be investment for 27 industrial clusters,” he said.
Earlier, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that since Gadkari took over the portfolio, it has been boon for Goa.
