The road, transport, highways and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari has said that government is focusing on enhancing infrastructure sector, mainly ports, roads and waterways in order to reduce logistics cost. He has said that logistics cost is very high in the country that is 18 percent. He added that it is easy to take any material from Mumbai to Dubai or from Mumbai to London, but it is very difficult to take material from Mumbai to Delhi as it is costly and complicated. Therefore, he said that they want to give highest priority to that on how they can reduce this cost. He also made a pitch for port-led development which is essential for higher economic growth.
The minister has expressed his hope that the target of 40 km of road construction per day will be achieved by next year. He said that it was 2 km per day, last year, it was 18 km per day and by the end of this March, it will be 30 km per day. But their target was 40 km per day, and he is confident that next year, they will complete that target and added that the government will complete 2 lakh km National Highway on time. He also said that by December-end the ministry has finalised contracts worth $80 billion.
About ports and shipping, Gadkari said that contracts worth Rs 1 lakh crore have been finalized in order to give a push to the sector. He said that most important for development is port led development and they have Sagarmala as a big investment project. He added that they have already started work on Rs 1 lakh crore. Minister noted that last year, the three flagships including Cochin Shipyard, Shipping Corporation of India and Dredging Corporation have recorded profit of Rs 6,000 crore and for this year, they are expecting profit of about Rs 7,000 crore and they are going to invest this profit.