Four years of Modi sarkar: Connecting inland waterways in the North East

The development of inland waterways in the north east were some of the highlights of the ministry of Shipping. A great deal of emphasis was laid on the port connectivity by the Narendra Modi government which completed four years in office.

Let us take a look at some of the achievements by the Ministry of Shipping:

Developing inland waterways in the North East

The Shipping Ministry is developing inland waterways in the North East .

• Connect north east region to Kolkata, Haldia, Mongla and Chittagong ports
• Dredging in Bangladesh to enable barge movement into North-East
• Set up Roll on- Roll off services across River banks
• Facilitate movement for armed forces· 12 floating terminals are already in place on Brahmaputra- Hatsingimari, Dhubri, Jogighopa, Pandu, Tezpur, Silghat, Biswanathghat, Neamati, Sengajan, Bogibil, Dibrugarh/Oakland and Oriumghat

56 floating terminals have been sanctioned for Brahmaputra and 16 floating terminals have been sanctioned for Barak river ( Investment of Rs. 35 crore)

• Dredging is being done. Night navigation is being enabled.
• 4 Differential Global Positioning System stations for safe navigation of vessels- Dhubri,
• Jogighopa, Biswanthghat and Dibrugarh
• Pandu terminal has been developed as a multi-modal modern Terminal, equipped with cargo handling facilities, transit sheds.

Raising of bonds by IWAI

• On the basis of Finance Ministers Budget Announcement 2016-17, IWAI was permitted to raise Rs. 1000 crore as bonds through Extra Budgetary Resources. IWAI raised Rs. 340 crore during the financial year 2016-17 and the balance amount of Rs. 660 crore has been raised in Oct, 2017. The EBRs raised are being utilized by IWAI exclusively for capital expenditure for development of National Waterways (NWs) during 2017-18.

Institutional funding for development and maintenance of National Waterways (NWs)- Allocation of 2.5 per cent of Central Road Fund

• The Union Cabinet has accorded its approval to a proposal for amendment of Central Road Fund Act, 2000 to allocate 2.5 per cent of the proceeds of Central Road Fund (CRF) for development and maintenance of National Waterways (NWs) and a commensurate reduction in the share provided for development of National Highways.
• To implement the decision, the Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017 has been introduced in Lok Sabha on 24.07.2017.

Coastal Community Development

• 3 areas under Coastal Community Development are:
• Skill development for coastal communities
• Infrastructure for fisheries
• Coastal tourism
• Ministry is part-funding select fishing harbour projects. Rs. 70.81 Cr released for 8 projects (cost: Rs. 466.42 Cr).
• Skill gap study of 21 coastal districts.
• 1,153 candidates trained and 600 candidates placed
• Fire safety training project for workers at Alang-Sosiya Shipyard.- 1,909 people trained.
• Centre of Excellence in Maritime & Shipbuilding being setup at Vizag and Mumbai. MOU signed with IRS and Siemens in Nov 2017.
• Multi-Skill Development Centre linked to JNPT being setup.

The full list of initiatives can be found here: http://pibarchive.nic.in/4YearsOfNDA/mininitiatives.aspx