The Union Ministry of Roads, Highway and Shipping is firming up plans to provide a go ahead to the ambitious six -lane highway project between Raipur and Visakhapatnam.

It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh had been already inviting private investors to set up manufacturing clusters for taking advantage of five sea ports within its 600 km reach from the State.

 With five ports Paradip and Dhamra in Odisha, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Machillipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, the opportunity of setting up of manufacturing clusters in Chhattisgarh is immense, officials informed.

 Notably, a mega Multi-Modal logistic Park (MMlP) is currently under construction spread in an area of 103 acres with an investment of Rs207 crore in Chhattisgarh’s new capital-- Naya Raipur, officials informed.

 Notably, the MMlPs in Telangana, Odisha, Chha-

ttisgarh, and Uttarakhand are being developed by Central public sector undertaking  Container Corporation of India ltd (CONCOR).

 As part of the National Perspective Plan, prepared under the Sagarmala Pro-

gramme of the Union Ministry of Shipping, a total of seven MMlPs were proposed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

 The potential sites were identified based on comprehensive study of the container cargo movement across the country and are located in the proximity of important industrial clusters. This will be advantageous for the transportation of containerised cargo, officials informed.

Taking this forward, CONCOR officials have informed that domestic operations have already commenced at one MMlP in Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) and MMlPs at four proposed locations - Nagulapally (Telangana), Siliguri (West Bengal), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Jharsuguda (Odisha), which are under development stage.

 For the other 2 locations – North Madhya Pradesh/ Chhattisgarh border (Singrauli) and Nagaur (Rajasthan), action will be initiated with a detailed area-wise analysis.

At Nagulapally (Telan-gana), 16 acres of the proposed 60 acre MMlP is being developed at a total investment of Rs120 Crore. The MMlP at Jharsuguda (Odisha) is under construction over an area of 27.41 acre with an investment of Rs100 Crore.

The MMlP in Uttar-akhand has been commissioned at Pantnagar with an investment of Rs120 crore in a joint venture between CONCOR and SIIDCUl (State Infrastructure Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand)

For the other two proposed MMlPs in Rajasthan (Nagaur) and Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh (Singrauli), detailed traffic assessment would be conducted to assess the potential of the multimodal hubs.

Sagarmala is the flagship programme of the Union Ministry of Shipping for promoting port-led development in India. It aims to achieve capacity expansion and modernisation of sea-ports along India’s coastline, enhance port connectivity to the hinterland, facilitate port-le industrialisation to promote trade and sustainable development of coastal communities. The National Perspective Plan (NPP) prepared under Sagarmala Programme was released in April 2016 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 More than 150 projects have been identified which will mobilise investment of over Rs4 lakh crore and generate close to 1 crore new jobs, including 40 lakh direct jobs, over a period of 10 years. These projects are expected to generate annual logistics cost savings of close to Rs35,000 crore and provide boost to India’s merchandise exports by $110 billion by 2025.

 It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh government had been wooing prospective investors to take advantage of the State’s  strategic location which shares boundaries with seven states.

  The states are – Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Mahar-ashtra, officials stated.

    The investors would have access to 50.9 crore population (40% of country’s population) and potential to tap 38% of India’s GDP, officials stated.

  Notably, State Commerce and Industry Minister Amar Agrawal in the month of January last year had suggested Consul General of People’s Republic of China MA Zhanwu who was on a visit to Chhattisgarh that owing to its location in the heart of the country, Chhattisgarh can be developed as 'logistics Hub |of India'.

 The Consulate General then had assured that China will encourage its industrialists to extend support in development of Chhattisgarh as ‘logistics Hub’ of India.

 The Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) also has plans of developing a ‘Transport Hub’ spread over an area of 161.9 hectares in the new capital city. The hub would include setting up light Rail Transport System (lRTS) stations. The area being earmarked for the 'Transport Hub' would be 12.55 per cent of the total area of the new capital city, officials stated.

 Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways acquired 115 hectares of land in Chhattisgarh for taking up various National Highway projects during the last financial year, the Central government has informed.

Notably, land for the construction of National Highways in the country is acquired under the provisions of the National Highways  Act, 1956, and the compensation is determined in consonance with the applicable provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had acquired 66 hectares of land during 2014-15. It had targetted to complete 10,950 km of National Highways during 2015-16 in the country. A total length of 1733 km have been constructed till July 31, 2015.

 The Centre had also sanctioned an amount of Rs305.56 crore for 10 important works under Central Road Fund Scheme during 2015-16 in Chhattisgarh, officials stated. These 10 works include construction of one road route, two railway over-bridges and under-bridges, one fly-over and bridge.

 PWD Minister Rajesh Munat had stated that these works have been approved by Centre in 2015-16 for ensuring smooth traffic movement in busy areas of the State.

 He said that these 10 approved works include construction of flyover at NH-6 Canal Road in Kashiram Nagar in Raipur at the cost of Rs46.35 crore, construction of bridge on Hasdeo River at Champa-Korba-Katghora Road at the cost of Rs29.77 crore, and construction of bridges on Rajnandgaon-Kawardha Road at the cost of Rs13.70 crore and on Rajnandgaon Arjunda-Gunderdehi Road at the cost of Rs24.17 crore.