Working on new marine technologies to cut costs: Gadkari

The Central government is working on different new technologies, including fuel, for maritime transport to cut costs, said Union Shipping and Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari here on Monday.

"We are working with lot of new technologies nowadays. We are planning to use methanol as a fuel for all our maritime transport, which is highly cost effective and less polluting in comparison to diesel," he said after laying the foundation stone for the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts (NTCPWC), at Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IITM).

The NTCPWC will work towards modernising India's ports and fast track waterways, said Gadkari.

The Centre will be a strategic and innovation-oriented initiative tasked with bringing cutting edge technology to India's ports, waterways and maritime sector, he said, adding that the Central government is extending a financial support of around Rs 70 crore initially and later the centre will become self-sustaining.

However the event had its share of controversy over charges that the Central government trying to impose Sanskrit after the students sang the invocation song in the classical language without playing the "Tamizh Thai Vazhthu (Invocation for Mother Tamil)".

In a statement issued here, PMK founder S. Ramadoss condemened the act of not singing "Tamizh Thai Vazthu" while singing an invocation in Sanskrit.

However IITM Director Bhakar Ramamurthi clarified that it was the students who came forward on their own to sing the invocation song in Sanskrit.

He said IITM does not have the practice of playing a recorded song and added that there is nothing wrong in singing "Tamizh Thai Vazhthu" and it could be sung in the future.

--IANS

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