The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has identified 13 domestic locations to connect four international destinations in Bangladesh, East Africa and Sri Lanka.

The Indian Railways was confident of completing the entire 2,800 km of the dedicated freight corridor projects by 2022, the head of Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp. of India Ltd (DFCCIL) has claimed.

Minister of State for Shipping (Independent Charge), Mansukh Mandaviya has directed Dredging Corporation of India to explore the possibilities of recycling of dredging material on the coastline as well as on riverine ports of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that any crisis also provides us with an opportunity and the country must use this challenging time as a turning point to become atmanirbhar or self-reliant.

Assuring the industry of the necessary support from the government, Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Shipping urged the Indian maritime industry to turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity.

India is blessed with a very long coastline and has a port infrastructure that is envied by some of the countries in the Asian region.

While the waterfront of a port is difficult to alter, mechanisation of terminals can be done easily, and is central to turnaround strategies, says Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Practise Leader & Director, Transport & Logistics, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory.

Multimode transport is yet to be a reality in India. There are no dedicated corridors that connect ports with Indian rail or inland waterways.

Until there is a realignment of development models, there is a high chance that the award of projects may remain muted for the current year as well. If that happens, India is likely to witness a dip in road capacity addition over subsequent years.