Page 61 - Abhivruddhi

any item across the country is close to 17%, which is very high compared
to global standards. This number must be brought down to a single digit if
we have to promote our business economy. The Government has initiated
multiple mega projects to achieve this target. The multimodal transport is
one such initiative, supported by projects like the Sagarmala, Bharatmala
Inland Waterways. Udaan is for Airports and there are many more similar
projects.
Given the challenges of road transport on multiple fronts like
cost efficiency. due to traffic congestion, high carbon footprint, high
dependence on imported fuel, land acquisition and much more. Such
schemes will compensate for the setbacks and contribute to a positive
progressive change, that will build over a period of time. When we are
fighting against time, then the inland water transport presents itself as a
viable alternative. The road, connectivity has been already taken up at a
massive scale to connect the far-flung areas to the mainstream, but it may
not be sufficient to meet the growing connectivity demand.
The vast coastline and the network of river system provide an invaluable
and highly underrated opportunity to build on the waterways in near
future. With this in mind, the Honourable Prime Minister has announced
the Gati Shakti initiative to be implemented by the Government of India
to incorporate massive infrastructure schemes of various ministries and
State Governments and bring synergy to fast track the mega projects for
improving connectivity.
It is a cost cutting initiative to deploy technology and project management
tools to bring efficiency in implementation of the mega infrastructure
projects. Economic zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters,
defense, corridors can be considered. The import of defense machinery
and ammunitions declined impressively due to defense corridors.
Industrial corridors, finishing clusters, agriculture zones will all be
covered to improve connectivity and make Indian businesses more
competitive. For this, in the author’s view, the waterways will be one of
the major contributors under the Prime Ministers, Gati Shakti initiative.
Raj Path Infracon (The author’s company) has now a focus to get
involved with projects related to inland waterways to build a commitment
to this initiative right at the grass root level, plans are made to establish a
Maritime Excellence Centre in Pune which is a CSR activity. This way the
know-how, expertise, experience and skilled manpower to work in projects
for inland waterways in the coming years, can be successfully executed.
With Raj Path Infracon’s strong background in the infrastructure business,

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