Govt earmarks Rs. 70,000-cr for river front projects

In order to exploit the full potentials of the country's 50,000 km of sea and river fronts by building as waterways, the government is looking innovative ways of financing and generating Rs 70,000-cr to develop these stretches in the first phase, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said shortly after getting passed the crucial bill to declare 111 rivers across the country into National Waterways. The move will pave the way for development of these stretches as transport carriers.

As a matter of fact, to date, only five of the river stretches were declared as National Waterways while the country has unique advantage as 14 of the states are bestowed with 7,500-km of coastline with 14,500-km of potentially navigable waterways. In addition, 116 rivers across the country provide 35,000 km of navigable stretches. In total India has huge length of waterways which on development will change the face of the country.

In totality, the government is committed to aggressively work to develop these as the environment friendly mode of transport which is bound to decrease significantly the huge to the tune of 18% logistics cost in India, he insisted.