Modi to lay foundation for deep sea port, Rail road bridge in March

Foundation stone for the construction of the deep sea port and a Rail road bridge connecting the port in Sagar Island will be laid by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March, said Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping minister at the Bengal Global Business Summit on Friday. 

Gadkari said technical and feasibility study of project is complete. The project will cost around Rs 2,700 crore. The detailed project report has been finalised by the consltants and the construction work will begin after the foundation stone is laid by Modi. 

Moreover, there will be investment for modernisation of Haldia Port. A committee has been formed headed by an IIT professor from Chennai and a new system will be introduced in the port. 

It will help in making a savings of around Rs 270 crore every year. Around Rs 500 is invested every year for dredging and it leads to a huge loss. 

The new system is expected to minimise the loss and the capacity of the port will also go up 50 million tones. 

In connection with the construction and expansion of highways and expressways, he said that the Centre will invest more Rs 37,482 crore for the same. 

The initial work of the project that worth around Rs 10,000 crore will began before March while the rest of the work for completion of the project will be initiated from December this year. 

He said the ongoing work for the expansion and construction of 668 km highways and expressways in the state at the cost of Rs 15,000 crore will be completed within March. The problems like encroachment and land issues have been settled. 

Gadkari also said that the Centre is planning to introduce electric buses to reduce the level of pollution. In a lighter mood Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged him to give 1,000 such buses to the state. In reply he urged her to give five diesel buses which will be converted to electric ones. Gadkari said electric buses costs around Rs 50 lakh each. But scientists in ISRO developed a battery using which the cost of manufacturing one of such bus will go down to Rs 5 lakh.