HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has said that the Central government proposes to generate wind power from Tuticorin, Kandla and Paradip ports.
The plan includes establishing desalination plants at the three ports to solve the drinking water problem besides producing power at a rate of Rs 2.5 per unit, he said. He was speaking at the 34th annual convocation of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) at Vellore on Saturday.
Recalling his tenure as a water resources minister, Gadkari regretted not being able to solve the impasse between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over sharing of Cauvery water.
He said though he had taken steps to resolve various inter-state water issues including Polavaram project between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, it was unfortunate that the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka was not resolved. He blamed the lack of political will between the leaders of both the states, for the Cauvery dispute remaining unresolved. Asking emerging engineering graduates to have an out of the box solution, the Minister said they should develop entrepreneurship skills.
Vishwas Deep, Global Talent Acquisition Head at Wipro Limited also spoke at the event. Dr G Viswanathan, VIT Chancellor in his address said that the VIT had been running ‘Support The Advancement of Rural Students (STARS)’ programme by providing free education to toppers of Class 12.