Centre proposes Water Transport Corporation

The central government has proposed forming a Water Transport Corporation in cooperation with the Tamil Nadu government and has committed Rs 200 crore, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said on Friday.

He said the corporation would run ferry services from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala to Kanyakumari and Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Gadkari said his ministry would invest Rs 200 crore as equity and also provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to private players to participate in the ferry service project.

According to him, the central government is interested in promoting waterways transport.

Gadkari urged the Tamil Nadu government to support the building of a new port in Enayam near Kolachal.

He was here to inaugurate various projects involving an outlay of Rs 1,492 crore at the Kamarajar Port that includes the Adani group's Rs 1,270 crore container terminal; Rs 151 crore multi-cargo terminal operated by Chettinad Group; Rs 60 crore railway line for the container and multi-cargo terminals and Rs 11.82 crore radio-frequency identification system.

--IANS

vj/pgh/dg