Union Minister for Road Transport Shipping and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari, will be visiting UP on Thursday where he will lay the foundation stone for an Intermodal Terminal at Ghazipur and later will have a discussion with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanatha about construction of National Highways.
The Rs 155 Cr terminal is being constructed by the Inland Waterways Authority of India as part of the World Bank aided Jal Marg Vikas Project on river Ganga that aims to augment the navigational capacity of the river.
Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Communication (Independent Charge) and Railways and Keshav Prasad Maurya, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh will also be present on the occasion.
Government spokesman said that the intermodal terminal at Ghazipur will have linkage to both National Waterways (NW) and National Highway which links Ghazipur with Patna. “The terminal will thus be very important for efficient movement of large and small cargo by providing the options for both land and water transportation or the option for intermodal switching,” he said.
The spokesman said that the terminal will have facilities like berths, storage areas and sheds, terminal building, communications systems and electrical substation. It will have a handling capacity of 12 lac tonnes per annum.
As part of efforts to promote environment friendly mode of transport, liquefied Natural Gas (lNG) bunkering facility is also being planned at Ghazipur terminal. “There are plans to run lNG fuelled vessels on NW. The terminal is expected to provide between 5000 direct and indirect jobs. The first phase of the terminal construction is expected to be completed by April, 2020, “ the spokesman said.
The intermodal terminal at Ghazipur is one of the several sub projects under the Rs 5369 Crore Jal Marg Vikas project. The other sub projects include construction of three multi modal terminals at Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia.
The development of this waterway would result in an environment friendly, fuel efficient and cost-effective alternative mode of transportation, especially for bulk goods, hazardous goods and over dimensional cargo, the spokesman said.