Cabinet gives 'in principle' nod to concept of Sagarmala project

NEW DELHI: The government will seek Parliament’s approval to declare 101 rivers part of the national waterways network in the ongoing budget session, following the Cabinet nod to the proposal on Wednesday.

Shipping minister Nitin Gadkari said that at least a dozen smart cities and several coastal economic zones will come up under the ambitious Sagarmala project, lifting India’s GDP growth by 2%. Gadkari has also asked finance minister Arun Jaitley to give infrastructure status to shipbuilding.

The government approved the Sagarmala project, which envisages port-led development at the 12 major ports as well as 1,208 islands identified for development as part of the project.

“An allocation of Rs 4,000 crore has been made for special economic zone at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust while coastal economic zone is in the offing at Kandla port, which has two lakh acres of land in its possession,” Gadkari told the media on Thursday.

The minister also said that no barrages will be built on the 620 km Varanasi-Haldia stretch as has been “wrongly projected”.

He said advance technology will be used to make sure the river is navigable. The World Bank, which has been advising the shipping ministry on the development of the inland waterways and the Clean Ganga mission, has approved an assistance of Rs 4,200 crore for the development of the existing five national waterways.

“Waterways have a meagre share of 0.3% in India as compared to 42% in Netherlands, 16% in China and over 7% in USA. This is a great economic opportunity loss to India,” Gadkari said.

For 55 of the 101 rivers, the shipping ministry has appointed consultants and detailed project reports (DPR) will be formulated once necessary approvals are in place.

A senior shipping ministry official said that work may not begin on all the 101 rivers, but it helps the government to avoid last-minute scramble to get permissions to build the infrastructure around these rivers as has happened in the past. The central government can undertake development of an inland waterway for navigation only when it is declared a national waterway by Parliament.