Bill to fund waterways from CRF in Monsoon Session: Gadkari

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The government will move a Bill in Parliament during the upcoming Monsoon Session to enable allocation of about Rs 2,000 crore from Central Road Fund for developing inland waterways, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

Parliament had last year enacted National Waterways (NWs) Act, 2016, for developing and maintaining the existing five NWs and 106 new NWs across the country. “We will move the Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017 during the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament,” the Road Transport and Highways Minister told.

“Once enacted, it will give a big boost to our waterways as cargo transportation through water is a much cheaper and cleaner way of transportation. It will bring down logistics cost that is very high,” Gadkari said.

The Cabinet in May had accorded approval to a joint proposal by the shipping ministry and the road transport and highways ministry for amending the Central Road Fund Act, 2000, to allocate 2.5 per cent of the proceeds of CRF for development and maintenance of NWs and a reduction in the share provided for development of National Highways.