India government plans to develop vacant lands on 12 major ports of the country into smart cities by investing around Rs 50,000 crore, as reported by The Economic Times.
“Each port will build one green smart city each at an expenditure of about Rs 3,000-4,000 crore,” announced the Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari.
The 12 major ports of the country are Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Managlore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata.
These ports controlled by central government have between them an estimated 2.64 lakh acres of land, which are major resources with Shipping Ministry.
Using GPS system government will try to identify and map the vacant lands in each port.
As part of the expansion program, the Centre has asked the port managements to formulate a land data base and development plans based on international operating standards.
Moreover, the government has directed the ports to implement projects which will boost their capacity to 1,600 million tons from the current capacity of 800 million tons.
Besides, government will allow private construction firms in a later stage to build smart cities in the vacant land of each port.
The construction is expected to begin in four to six months, which will be completed almost in five years.
Specifying the smart city idea, minister said that these cities will be built in accordance with international standards having wide roads and contemporary townships.
In addition, these pollution-free smart cities and ports will have e-governance networks, international standard facilities, special economic zones and ship breaking and ship building centers.
Further, the port will implement water recycling system. Electric vehicles will be major modes of transportation. Bio fuel run vehicles will also be another conveyance option.
The wastes generated will be converted into bio gas. There will also be clean power centers generating solar and wind energy at ports.
Government also has plans to set up a bio diesel plant at Haldia port of West Bengal for generating bio diesel from palm oil residue.
Sabeena Wahid
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