The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari has welcomed the thrust accorded by the Union Budget 2017-18, to multi modal transport planning and synergizing investments in railways, roads, waterways and civil aviation. Terming the budget as revolutionary, Shri Gadkari said that development of multi-modal transport hubs would help ease traffic congestion to a large extent and also bring down pollution.
The Budget 2017-18 has made a provision of Rs 2,41,381 Crores for the transport sector as a whole. This includes rail, roads and shipping. It is expected that an effective multi modal logistics and transport sector will make the economy more competitive. Work is already being done to develop a programme for building multi-modal logistics parks, together with multi modal transport facilities.
The Budget allocation for Highways has gone up from Rs 57,976 crores in BE 2016-17 to Rs 64,900 crores in 2017-18. 2,000 kms of coastal connectivity roads have been identified for construction and development. This will facilitate better connectivity with ports and remote villages.
For the Shipping Ministry the allocation has gone up from Rs 1531 crores in BE 2016-17 to Rs 1773 Crores . Rs 600 crores have been allocated for Sagarmala programme.
Shri Gadkari has also expressed hope that tax exemption on Masala Bonds will help mobilize more investments. He also lauded the top priority accorded by the Budget to the growth of Agriculture and Rural sectors, and to the weeding out of corruption and black money.