Local Goa News

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Travel from Goa to Mumbai by road in just 6 hours soon

PANAJI: Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday  that travel time on Goa-Mumbai highway will soon be just six hours due to a four-lane road project commissioned by the Centre.

Work on the project started recently and will be commissioned before October 2018. The four-lane concrete road is expected to be as good as an expressway. It will cut down on logistic costs of industry and will benefit tourism, said Gadkari at the signing of the concession agreement between the MPT and the Goa Seaport Pvt Ltd, a Vedanta group company.
Gadkari said the Goa-Mumbai road is for better port-road connectivity and part of the ambitious Sagar Mala project of the Union transport ministry.
The government has Rs 20,000 crore worth of infrastructure projects ongoing for Goa and they include the construction cost of the Goa-Mumbai road.
Other projects of the Union transport ministry are development of Mandovi and Zuari rivers as waterways, an eight-km highway to the proposed Mopa airport (costing Rs 300 crore), a modern cruise terminal (costing Rs 10 crore), among others.
The Union minister added that the Centre is having a re-think on funding development of the port in Goa and the state’s loss is likely to be Karnataka’s gain. Limited capacity of the local port and people’s opposition to projects are the reasons for the re-think, he said.
While implementing the Sagar Mala project the government is conscious of the concerns of local fishermen and all issues will be amicably solved, Gadkari said.  Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was present at the signing of the concession agreement function. He said that thanks to Gadkari’s support several widening of roads, construction of bridges and ports are taking place in Goa.
The concession agreement for development of berth 8,9 and barge berth at the MPT was signed by MPT chairman I Jeykumar and Kishore Kumar, chief executive officer, iron ore division, Vedanta and director, Goa Seaport. The cost of re-development is estimated at Rs 1,145.3 crore.
The Union minister also inaugurated a 200-KW solar power plant at the MPT during the signing function.
He said the plant will make the MPT green.
Others present at the function were South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar,  Chief Secretary  R K Srivastava and Power Minister Milin Naik.
Gadkari said the redevelopment of berths 8,9 and the barge berth will boost economical growth of Goa as it will reduce transport or logistic cost.

NT Network Goa News

No comments:

Post a Comment