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The Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T. R. Baalu today said that the Department of Shipping is in the process of finalising the National Maritime Development Programme by identifying specific projects and schemes to give a concrete shape to the vision laid down in the Maritime Policy Document, over a span of 10 years.
Addressing the 6th Meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry, Thiru Baalu said that the programme would involve an investment of Rs. 60,000 crore in Ports Sector and Rs. 40,000 crore in Shipping & IWT Sectors and would be implemented through public-private partnership.
Declaration of port channels as National Sea Waterways in a phased manner beginning with major ports and their development and maintenance through Central Government funding is envisaged in the draft Policy for the Maritime Sector, he said. The aim behind National Sea Waterways is to ensure coordinated development and maintenance of port channels to keep pace with the demands for deeper draught generated on account of increasing vessel size, the Minister added.
Addressing the environmental concerns on the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, the Minister said that it has been ensured that all apprehensions raised with regard to the environment and ecology are dispelled through various studies to ensure that no one has any doubt about this project. He pointed out that Alignment for the Channel was finalised after a detailed study made by NEERI and while formulating the project, adequate care has been taken to ensure that adverse impact on environment is minimal.
The Minister said that keeping in view the ecologically sensitive nature of the region, an elaborate Environment Management Plan has been drawn up to safeguard the bio-diversity of the region during the implementation and operation period. Giving details of the elaborate monitoring system, the Minister said that the monitoring would be carried out at three levels : at an interval of four hours under the first level at the dredging location, every eight hours under the second level at two locations and under the third level at shore at an interval of 24 hours. He assured the Members that the present alignment is found to be environmentally acceptable as revealed by studies
undertaken by leading institutions of this country such as the NEERI, the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai and a host of others.
Dispelling the apprehensions of the Fishermen community about the possibility of reduction in fish breeding and fish catches, the Minister pointed out that the primary productivity in the areas would not be affected as shown by the modelling studies and the disturbance to the fishing activity would be restricted to dredging area only and that too during the dredging time. However, as a part of community development and Relief and Rehabilitation measures, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has already been approached for the construction of necessary fishing harbours as a part of the project.
The Minister also informed the Meeting that under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), almost seven kms of 4-lane highways stretch is being constructed every day which is a remarkable pace of development, comparing to the fact that it was only 2.87 kms per day earlier. He said that under various Phases of NHDP 14,279 kms of existing National Highways have been taken up for four/six-laning at a cost of Rs.64,639 crore. During the current year, he said, Rs.1400 crore have been provided for four-laning of 10,000 kms of National Highways under NHDP Phase III. In the current year, an amount of Rs. 1,427.30 crore has been provided for National Highways development to be done by the State Public Works Departments and another sum of Rs.415 crores has been provided for roads under the Border Roads Organisation.
Participating in the discussion, the Members congratulated the Minister for the successful launch of the Sethusamudram Project and expressed satisfaction that environmental concerns raised in this regard have adequately been addressed to by the Ministry. However, one Member advised that it should be ensured that we do not inflict any irreversible damage to the ecology of the region while implementing the project.
The Meeting was attended by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Shri K.H. Muniyappa, Shri Chegondi V. H. Jogaiah, Dr. R. Senthil, Shri Hari Kewal Prasad, Shri Lakshman Chandra Seth, Shri Santosh Gangwar, Dr. T. Subbarami Reddi and Shri Manoj Bhattacharya, all Members of Parliament and senior officials of the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways.
VBA/BS
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