The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari virtually laid the foundation stone for India’s first-ever multimodal logistic park in Assam on October 20. The event was presided over by the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and attended by union minister of states (MoSs)– Dr Jitendra Singh, Gen (Retd) Dr V K Singh and Shri RameshwarTeli, ministers from the centre and state, members of parliaments, MLAs and other senior officers from the centre and the state.
The Rs 693.97 crore park will provide direct connectivity to air, road, rail, and waterways to the people. It will be developed under the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana of the Government of India.
Speaking on the occasion, Nitin Gadkari said that his Ministry envisages developing 35 multimodal Logistic Parks (MMLPs) in the country, of which work on preparing DPR and feasibility report is underway. “SPVs will be formed for all these MMLPs, and professionally qualified CEOs will be appointed for each separately.”
The first such MMLP is being made by National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) in Jogighopa of Assam, which will be connected to road, rail, air and waterways. This is being developed in 317-acre land along the Brahmaputra. Gadkari said, the first phase of construction is scheduled to be completed by 2023. Gadkari informed that works worth Rs 280 crore have already been awarded, including Rs 171 crore for road construction, Rs 87 crore for erecting the structure, and Rs 23 crore for rail lines. The work will begin next month.
The minister expressed hope that this project will provide direct or indirect employment to nearly 20 lakh youths in the state.
Gadkari added that the distance of 154 km between Jogighopa and Guwahati will be covered by making a 4-lane road on this stretch, a 3-km rail line will connect Jogighopa station to the MMLP, another 3-km rail link will connect it to the IWT, and the road to newly developed Rupsi airport will be upgraded to 4-lanes for easier connectivity. “The MMLP will have all the facilities like, warehouse, railway siding, cold storage, custom clearance house, yard facility, workshops, petrol pumps, truck parking, administrative building, boarding lodging, eating joints, water treatment plant, etc.”
Gadkari informed that the initial report and master plan is ready for the 346 acre MMLP with JNPT in Wardha Dry port area of Nagpur. Feasibility reports are being prepared for the Bangalore MMLP, Sangrur warehouse complex in Punjab, Surat, Mumbai, Indore, Patna, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Coimbatore. DPR is being made for MMLP near Chennai port, and studies have begun for MMLP in Pune and Ludhiana. Other 22 MMLPs are proposed in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Kandla, Vadodara, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jullundur, Bhatinda, Hissar, Ambala, Kota, Jaipur, Jagatsinghpur, Sundarnagar. Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Nashik, Panaji, Bhopal, Raipur, and Jammu.
