Manas Dasgupta
SURAT (GUJARAT), Nov 8: The prime minister Narendra Modi has underscored the importance of developing waterways for transportation for cheaper movement of goods across the country without causing much damage to the environment.
Modi was inaugurating on Sunday the Ro-Pax terminal at Hazira in Surat, known as the diamond and art silk city in Gujarat, and flagged off the Ro-Pax ferry service between Hazira and Ghogha in Bhavnagar in the Saurashtra region of his home state, through video conferencing.
The prime minister regretted that before he took over in 2014, the central governments never gave due importance to developing the waterways in the country. Pointing out that transportation by waterways was many times cheaper than road and railways and also causes less damage to the environment, he said the work with a holistic approach in this direction was going on in inland rivers across the country to connect many Land-locked states to the sea.
“Today in the Bay of Bengal, we are developing our capabilities in the Indian Ocean unprecedentedly. The maritime part of the country has emerged as an important part of “AtmaNirbhar Bharat,” he said.
In keeping with the nature of work and the importance given to the sector the world-over, the Prime Minister renamed the Ministry of Shipping as the “Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.” He said in most of the developed countries the Ministry of Shipping handles Ports and Waterways. He added now with more clarity in name, there would be more clarity in the work.
The Prime Minister said to strengthen the Blue Economy’s stake in AtmaNirbhar Bharat, there was a great need to strengthen the maritime logistics. He was concerned that presently the cost of carrying goods from one part of the country to another was more in India than any other country. Suggesting that the cost of Logistics could be reduced by water transport, he said the country’s focus should be to create an ecosystem where there could be seamless movement of cargo. He added the country was now making rapid strides in the direction of Multimodal Connectivity to reduce logistics costs and efforts had been made to improve connectivity between road, rail, air and shipping infrastructure and also to overcome the silos.
Modi said Multimodal Logistics Parks were being constructed in the country. He added that Multimodal connectivity was being developed with some of the neighbouring countries also. He wished that with these efforts the cost of Logistics in the country should come down and give impetus to the economy.
Referring to Gujarat, the prime minister said he Ro-Pax ferry service would benefit everyone in the state by reducing the distance between the Saurashtra region to south Gujarat from about 370 kilometres to only about 60 kilometres and journey time from 10 to 12 hours by road to mere three to four hours by the sea route. This would help boost the business and faster connectivity and change the life of the people in these regions. He added fruits, vegetables and milk could now easily be transported and pollution would also be reduced due to this service. He thanked all those engineers, workers, who remained courageous to develop the facility amidst a lot of challenges. He wished the people for this new maritime connectivity established between Bhavnagar and Surat.
Even as the union shipping minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who himself hailed from Bhavnagar in Gujarat, only last week virtually ruled out the possibility of re-launch of the Ghogha-Dahej Ro-Ro ferry service due to heavy siltation at Dahej port, Modi said the government was making efforts to restore the service. The prime minister had launched the “Roll-in Roll-out” ferry service connecting the two ports in the Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions last year for a similar shortened sea route but the service did not last long and the private operators abandoned the project after a few services.
The Prime Minister lauded the way Gujarat realized its maritime potential in the last two decades and gave priority to port led development after he took over as the chief minister. He listed the initiatives of the State Government in developing the maritime potential of the state like drafting a Shipbuilding policy, construction of Shipbuilding Park and Specialized Terminals, promotion of Vessel Traffic Management system and Ground Breaking Connectivity project. He said with these initiatives the port sector received a new direction. He stressed that efforts were made to modernize the entire ecosystem of the coastal area in addition to developing the physical infrastructure.
The Prime Minister remarked that the maritime business-related infrastructure and capacity building in Gujarat was in full swing and many facilities Gujarat Maritime Cluster, Gujarat Maritime University and country’s first CNG Terminal at Bhavnagar were getting ready. The Gujarat Maritime cluster ports to be built in GIFT city would be a dedicated system to address Ports to sea based Logistics. He said these clusters would help in strengthening the cooperation between the government, industry and educational institutions and would also help in value addition in this sector.
The Prime Minister said presently the capacities of the ports were being increased across the nation and constructions of new ports were also going on at a faster pace. He added efforts were being are made to put maximum use of about 21000 km of waterway in the country for the development of the nation. He also pointed out that more than 500 waterways-based project across the country were at various stages of development under the central government’s “Sagarmala” scheme.
