India looking to connect with ASEAN countries through maritime: Gadkari

New Delhi, Dec 11: Union Minister for Road Transport Highway, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari said India is looking forward to maritime connectivity with ASEAN countries through river and port connectivity.

River and port connectivity was very important for boosting trade and investment and the government was giving special focus to developing the maritime sector, Mr Gadkari said while addressing the inaugural session of ASEAN-India Connectivity Summit here on Monday.
The Minister emphasised that digital infrastructure was important but most important was physical infrastructure.
Mr Gadkari said that for boosting trade and investment with ASEAN and South Asian countries the 7,500 km sea front was very important for the same.
Talking about the government’s ambitious Bharatmala project, the Minister said the 2,000 km programme with an outlay of Rs 25,000 crore were to connect India’s major highways corridors to international trade points.
This will help facilitate export and import trade with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Besides, there were several other projects under implementation which aimed to facilitate India’s international connectivity with neighbouring countries in South Asia and ASEAN.
The Minister said that India has a great potential in cruise tourism and government is planning to develop Mumbai for this booming industry. The city would link with important locations of the country besides South East Asia.
Stating that his government was giving massive push to infrastructure development in the country, Mr Gadkari said by next year, it was aiming to construct 40 km of road daily.
He said the government has already sanctioned Rs 1,000 crore for a cruise terminal in Mumbai.
India had also undertaken to build 120 km of the Kalewa-Yargyi road segmentof the India–Myanmar–Thailand (IMT) Trilateral Highway, the Minister added. UNI