Gadkari asks major ports to form inland waterways subsidiaries

Mumbai, Aug 22 (PTI) To raise a part of large pool ofresources needed to fund the ambitious inland waterways plan,Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari today said all majorports have been asked to start subsidiaries which willleverage dollar-denominated billing to raise low-cost money. His Ministry has also written to the Finance Ministry toallocate 5 per cent of the corpus coming from the cess onpetrol and diesel for inland waterways, he said. "My Ministry’s total budget is Rs 1,800 crore and it isnot possible to undertake the inland waterways projects withinthat," Gadkari told reporters on the sidelines of the annualIndo-American Chamber of Commerce meeting here. Starting with the largest container port JNPT, theMinistry has asked major ports to start subsidiaries for thepurpose, he said. JNPT will be developing waterways in seven to eightrivers in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Goa by raisingcheaper forex credit against its annual foreign currencybilling of over Rs 4,000 crore, Gadkari said. Nearly Rs 50,000 crore in low-cost borrowings can beraised by JNPT alone through the receivables, he said, addingthe Ministry has decided to ask other ports to start similarsubsidiaries. With resource mobilisation being a key worry, theShipping Ministry has also asked the Finance Ministry to partwith 5 per cent of the overall petrol-diesel cess for inlandwaterways, Gadkari said. At present, the cess is being utilised for railway androad development (both at Centre and state levels), he said,and stressed it should also be used for inland waterways beingdeveloped under the Jal Marg Vikas plan funded by the WorldBank. The country has a vast network of rivers and canalsstretching over 14,500 km. The Centre has been collecting Rs 2 each on a litre ofpetrol and diesel since 2000 to part fund national highwaysand the money is parked with Central Road Fund, which was setup through a Central legislation. The Rs 2 per litre cess onpetrol and diesel contributes about Rs 8,000 crore a year. The Government has already approved developing 106 newinland water projects spread across 24 states as nationalwaterways in addition to the five existing networks after theNational Waterways Bill 2015 was approved by the Lok Sabhaduring last the winter session. Currently, cargo movement along the five existingnational waterways totalling 4,434 km is not even 3 milliontonne a year, or a paltry 3 per cent of all cargo movement inthe country. (more) PTI AA BEN RSYMRJMF