State to Centre: Clear flyover proposals fast

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government urged the Union ministry of roads and highway development to speed up clearance of road over-bridges and flyover proposals sent from Gujarat.
The request was made by deputy chief minister Nitin Patel at a seminar on ‘Logistics and Infrastructure’ at the Mahatma Mandir during the Vibrant summit. Patel on Thursday said the Centre is giving priority but for the development of the state and nation proposals from Gujarat should be expedited.
During the seminar, Adani Ports and SEZ signed an MoU worth Rs 6,000 crore for the third phase of expansion of Mundra port.Essar Ports also signed an MoU, worth Rs 10,600 crore. The Danish Maritime Board and Gujarat Maritime Board signed a MoU for ship building.
Patel further said that Gujarat is the first state to give relief of Rs 250 crore in toll tax for cars using state roads. He also announced that the new roads will also have the same policy. He further said that the Centre has approved a full cement road from Dwarka to Somnath and approved the six-laning of the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway.
Sanjay Bhatia, chairman of Mumbai Port Trust said that in the last 30 months, there had been tremendous progress in the ports and road sector. Earlier, when there was no coordination between city planning and port planning, now a representative of the ports must be there as a representative in the civic body planning and vice versa.
Prof G Raghuram, chairperson of the Public Systems Group at IIM Ahmedabad, said India has a problem of unskilled manpower and a slow rate of technology, while in the trucking sector a shortage of drivers is a serious problem. Also, lower levels of safety are a serious threat to road transport. He also said that the government should identify legally induced delays and try to sort out issue for expansion of roads.
Karan Adani, executive director of Adani Port And SEZ said that when the country is focusing on Make in India, export oriented business need to be located near ports so that there is synergy between them.