In a move, the Government hopes will save costs and promote water transport. The Shipping Ministry is readying a blue print to ship vehicles made in Chennai to Gujarat via sea and onwards to Delhi and elsewhere by road.
According to a Shipping Ministry official, The Ministry has been asked to prepare a feasibility report on transporting vehicles manufactured in the South from ports around Chennai to Delhi via Gujarat and automobiles built in and around Delhi to the South from Gujarat based ports.
Our country’s Transport Minister, Mr Nitin Gadkari backed the report, stating that waterways were a fuel efficient and environment friendly mode of transport, which cost 55paise for a km, as against Rs 1.50 on transportation by road. What is exemplary though is that the Port of Ennore alone saw exports of 449,720 automobile units last year, which included manufacturers like Nissan, Ford and Ashok Leyland from Chennai, Toyota from Bangalore and Honda from Delhi. It may also be noted that the possibility of a waterway from the point where the Ganga widens in the north, passing Kanpur, Allahabad till Kolkata is being explored for cargo and passenger movement.
As the Mumbai Metro opened to the general public yesterday, we feel the transportation infrastructure in our country hasn’t been able to keep up with the rise in everything else in India and is still a good few years behind. having said that, time to look for the man who sells peanuts in a traffic jam, while i dream about my car taking off vertically and landing on my apartments terrace.
Source: ETAuto.com