Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has said that his two ministries have together spent a total of about Rs 4 lakh crore in the past two and a half years as they work towards building world class highways and shipping infrastructure in the country.
While the Road Transport & Highways Ministry has spent about Rs 3,17,000 crore to build a total of 14,594 km and award 21,247 km of National Highways, the Shipping Ministry has spent about Rs 80,000 crore for various projects aimed at modernising and mechanising the shipping sector and making it more efficient. The minister was speaking at an Economic EditorsÂ’ Conference organised by the Press Information Bureau in New Delhi.
Talking about the ambitious Sagarmala programme of the Shipping Ministry, Gadkari said that it will bring about a major reduction of logistics cost for export-import and domestic trade. The cost savings from this are likely to be Rs 35,000 to 40,000 crore per annum. He said that various projects amounting to about Rs 12 lakh crore have been identified under the programme. These include projects for enhancing port connectivity, modernisation of existing ports and developing new ones, port-linked industrialisation and coastal community development.
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