MUMBAI: The Navi Mumbai international airport will have water-way connectivity, union minister for shipping, ports and highways said here on Tuesday.
“A consultant has been appointed for providing water-way connectivity to the new Navi Mumbai international airport,” Gadkari told the New Indian Express. He had first spoke of the water-way connectivity for the new green field international airport during foundation stone ceremony of the airport earlier this year.
Due to the proximity of the airport to the creek, it is easier to provide water-way connectivity between the airport and various parts of Mumbai and coastal Maharashtra. That is the whole idea about it, Gadkari said and added that cruise terminal at Goa is ready while its is near completion in Mumbai. He also said that trial sailing of Mumbai-Goa cruise service is successful and regular services would begin post monsoon.
Gadkari also said that the government is contemplating on a ‘Broad-Gauge-Metro” at Nagpur. New technology brings down costs. While the metro in Pune costs around 1 lakh crore, the broadgauge metro will cost only Rs 1500 crore, he said.
While rubbishing the opposition to the Bullet train project, Gadkari termed the objections being taken over the choice of Mumbai-Ahmedabad route as “immature”. He also said that a new Mumbai-Delhi expressway would be developed at the cost of Rs 1 lakh crore. It would be 125 km shorter than the current road and would cut down travel time to 12 hours. “This will serve the country by the way of saving a lot of money,” he added.
Gadkari was here in the city to present achievements of the Modi government. “Modi government’s achievements in past 48 months are more than that of the 48 years Congress rule,” he said.
“The 48 months of Modi government were full of major social and economic transformation. The government has brought in a positive change in the lives of millions of people,” Gadkari said while mentioning schemes like Ujjwala that provides for free cooking gas, JanDhan that provides for poor’s bank accounts, Ayushman Bharat scheme that provides for Rs 5 lakh of health cover every year for 10 crore people etc.
With the central government’s thrust on irrigation schemes, the irrigated area in Maharashtra would be doubled by next December, Gadkari said. The government is also trying to shift the thrust on fuels like ethanol that will keep the prices of petroleum products under cheque and also increase formers’ income.