Government to accord greater importance to Inland Waterways, followed by Railways & Roads – Nitin Gadkari

The Government is developing a multi modal transportation model for the country with greater emphasis on waterways as opposed to the existing dependence on land transport in a bid to optimise logistical costs, a critical input to industry and manufacturing, Road Transport and Shipping Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari said while speaking at the CII National Conference and Annual Session 2015 on Tuesday in the capital.

The Minister further added that the PPP Model was more successful in waterways and it assumed greater significance that it remains largely under-utilised in India. “While in China around 47% of goods & services are moved via water, the corresponding percentage in India is at dismal 3.3%, including coastal shipping and inland water ways,” the Minister said. It would provide a great boost to lowering the overall logistics cost for the industry and contribute in promoting trade. In this context, five waterways have been approved by the Parliament and the objective is to create numerous multimodal hubs that would not only be efficient but also reduce pollution, he said.

Mr Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and
Highways, Shipping addressing the session on Building India: The Infrastructure
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Mr. Gadkari in his remarks acknowledged the problems being faced by the Indian infrastructure sector and assured that the Government is taking steps like stimulating Pension & Insurance funds and promoting low cost funds from abroad with an objective of relieving this strained sector. He also stressed that the Government was committed to reduce the construction cost, by adopting international construction norms, and endorsing new technologies across the transport sector.

For the Roads sector, the Minister shared that his Ministry has taken over 25000 kms of Roads & Highways across the country to be developed on the newly announced hybrid annuity model. While the road construction at present is around 12 Kms per day, the target is to reach 30 Kms per day.

In his address, Mr. Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman – CII National Taskforce on Infrastructure Projects – Monitoring & Advocacy and Chairman – Feedback Infra Private Limited complimented the Government for recognizing the economic multiplier effect of infra on the entire economy. He cited some of the specific importance of off – budget funding like constituting National Infra Investment Fund with a sum of INR 20,000 crores; exploring medium & long term funding options; providing greater thrust for Institutional rejuvenation by stressing upon accountability & transparency and taking steps like bringing the entire transport sector under one ministry and corporatization of major ports; ensuring transparent process for bidding; broadening the infra base by giving greater importance to sectors like railways, inland waterway, coastal shipping, mass housing and , cleaning of rivers; taking steps to re-cast the PPP  and balancing the risk allocation, renegotiation, land acquisition & environment clearance.

At the same time, he also requested the private sector to abstain from practices like over bidding and gold plating et al. Going ahead, Mr. Chatterjee suggested creation of Land bank corporations and a Public Purpose Validation Commission for smooth land acquisition process; creation of a National Electricity Distribution Company and PPP Renegotiation Commission to provide greater impetus to infrastructure sector in the country.

Mr. Prashant Ruia, CEO, Essar Group, in his remarks, emphasized upon the need for Innovative financing models and supporting regulatory environment to create enabling framework and revive investments in the infrastructure sector.

PPPs essential to enforce RTE

Public private partnerships (PPP) are an essential element to reinforce the objectives of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. This was stated by Dr Amarjit Singh, Additional Secretary, Department of Elementary Education, at a conference organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to bring together different stakeholders in the country to further the objectives of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The focus of the conference was on having the private sector, public sector, non-government organisations (NGOs) and the government work as a cohesive unit to make every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years reap the benefits of going to school.

Dr Singh acknowledged the work that NGOs were doing in spreading the message of free and compulsory quality education across the country. He urged the private sector to come forward and work in driving RTE by making every child feel connected to nearby environment. This, he said, could be achieved by taking the curriculum beyond textbooks, ensuring required revisions were made to the curriculum on time, exams were more flexible and there was more sensitivity to the needs of the economically weaker sections.

Educationist and President, Tamanna, Dr. Shama Chona and Country Director, Young Lives, Dr. Renu Singh agreed with Dr. Singh on another grave concern that most encounter – to assess the utilization of funds and money of tax payers. Dr. Singh shared that the 2 per cent cess paid by everybody in the country was being effectively used for the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan and in providing mid-day meals to children in schools.

Other speakers at the conference also approved of the key role NGOs were playing in this space and suggested more interventions such as assisting in ensuring that the funds were effectively deployed and making children more sensitive to the financially weaker sections of society.

The additional secretary exhorted CII to work on constructing a consortium of schools, NGOs and the government on making the impact more realistic. He appreciated the efforts of CII in coordinating and helping scale up the efforts of PPPs. He advised all small groups to work together and PPPs to ensure that funds were spent effectively by having guidelines, and spoke of the urgent requirement of having good principles, trained teachers and quality curriculum in schools.

Dr Amarjit Singh, Additional Secretary, Elementary Education, Dr Shyama Chona, Educationist & President, Tamanna with other eminent speakers at Conference on Role of nonprofit organizations in Implementing RTE on 8 Jan 2014 at New Delhi