Centre to create 50L jobs in highways, shipping: Gadkari

The Centre aims to generate at least 50 lakh jobs in the next five years through the proposed massive projects in highways and shipping sectors with investments to the tune of Rs 6 lakh crore.

The government has already awarded projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore since it came to power and is expected to clear more projects in the next fiscal, Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told reporters here on Thursday.

The minister also said the government is working towards a Rs 22,000-crore project to establish road connectivity between India and Sri Lanka.

The Asian Development Bank has expressed willingness to fund it, he added. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to enter the hybrid annuity model (HAM) for award of highway projects by November this year.

The NHAI has finalised a model concession agreement (MCA) under the new model and sent it to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for approval.

The government is planning to award 576 km of NH projects worth Rs 15,000 crore under the new model in the current fiscal while in the next fiscal 2016-17, it is likely to clear 1,105 km of NHs with the investment of Rs 12,185 crore.

After signing pacts with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal for seamless flow of traffic, the project for providing connectivity with Sri Lanka is on the anvil, he added. India would soon enter into another landmark motor pact with Myanmar and Thailand by year-end, on the lines of the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) project signed with three other SAARC nations, he added.

More projects

Work on $8 billion road connectivity projects among BBIN countries under Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA) will be completed within two years, he said. The BBIN pact was signed last month during Gadkari's visit to Bhutan. Projects worth about Rs 13,500 crore have been awarded so far this fiscal in sharp contrast to barely Rs 6,300 crore projects awarded in 2014-15.

The number of PPP projects awarded was only two in 2013-14. On the Shipping sector, he said, some of the existing vessels can be converted into LNG ships, as the government is planning to build LNG-based water ports.