NEW DELHI: In a bid to create a ‘world-class infrastructure’ in the country, the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that the country offers “golden
opportunities” for global investors in sectors such as infrastructure, transport, agriculture and food processing.
Gadkari said that other sectors such as waterways and agriculture are also undergoing massive reforms that include 325 irrigation projects and massive river-interlinking programme, the Road, Transport, Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Addressing the World Food India 2017 conference on the ‘Opportunities in Infrastructure Technology & Equipment’, the minister pointed out that “There are golden opportunities for investors in food processing, agriculture, water transport, highways, shipping and other sectors.”
“We are bound to create a world-class infrastructure in coming two years. Of the 32 logistic parks, 24 have already been identified on National Corridors to be built at a cost of `2 lakh crore. These parks will cater to key production and consumption centres accounting for 45 per cent of India’s road freight,” the minister added.
He said the work has already been started at Chennai, Bangalore, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Surat and Guwahati for logistic parks that are designed to house cold storages and warehouses. Besides, government’s another major initiative Sagarmala for port-led economic development of the country will see reduction of about `40,000 crore logistic cost in the country, he said.
Sagarmala will see development of 14 coastal economic zones besides development of two mega food processing parks, he said. Stressing that development of logistic parks is essential as India witnesses wastage of fruits and vegetables worth `13,300 crore which account for about 35 per cent of the produce due to lack of infrastructure, the minister said that only 10 per cent of fruit and vegetables are processed in India whose participation is barely one per cent in global processed food.
The government aims at enhancing the processing of fruits and vegetables to 20 per cent by 2019, he added.