How can Goa and Goan economy benefit from the PM Gati Shakti scheme?

NEW DELHI: The PM Gati Shakti Scheme aims to bolster the country’s road, rail and air networks as well as inland waterways, increasing their role in the national transportation grid, providing a comprehensive logistics and supply chain backbone in line with the National Logistics Policy (NLP) and making inland waterways the lifeline for India’s hinterland when it comes to transportation, logistics, cargo and passenger movement to the remote areas of the various states.

The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP) was launched on 13th October 2021 and aims to provide multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones including the hinterland, villages and remote areas, connecting them to global and national markets via rail, air, road inland waterways and sea routes.

The strengthening and augmentation of inland waterways under the PM Gati Shakti scheme will bring about a transformative impact on the life of the people in the region by facilitation of health and medical services, internet and connectivity and the like.

Coming to Goa, under the PM Gati Shakti Scheme innovative technological and engineering solutions will resolve the widespread siltation in Goan waterways like the Mandovi and Zuari, which have reduced the basin capacity over the decades.

These solutions will keep the piscine, marine and aquatic life intact, while desilting and deepening the rivers, making transportation via bigger barges, ferries and boats using green solar power feasible.

The scientific desilting of these waterways and deepening their basins will also reduce the threat of flooding due to unseasonal rains triggered by Climate Change events in the country.

A national waterway network will enable excess water inflow due to torrential rains in one region to be diverted to other regions of low rainfall for eventual use in irrigation and industry.

It will provide an impetus and boost to the Goan rural and village economy, providing forest and village dwellers easy access to global markets, reduce costs of transportation and logistics by nearly 30 to 40 per cent and still safeguard the environment by reducing the carbon footprint and water pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels.

Goa has a rich network of inland rivers and waterways but not even 40 to 50 per cent of them are currently used to ease the congestion on roads. A proper network along the waterways will mean a huge drop in traffic congestion along the main roads, enabling men and materials to be transported across the national waterways, which will eventually link various states in a national grid, opines Dennis Francis an expert on logistics working with an international Cargo airline.

Goa’s six national waterways include the rivers Zuari (NW111), Mandovi (NW68), Cumbharjua Canal (NW27), Mapusa, Chapora and Sal. They cover a total length of 181.7 kilometres, but are greatly underutilized in terms of their transportation potential which is at less than 20 percent at current utilization levels.

Compared to the national index on use of waterways in transportation and cargo movement, Goa lags far behind. This is where projects like the PM Gati Shakti Scheme, National Logistics Policy (NLP) and the Sagarmala project come in.

Goa needs to set up high-powered committees to chalk out its waterway networks, forming a grid to ensure North-South and East-West connectivity.

It must use its centuries-old shipbuilding and engineering expertise and skilled manpower to produce the required boats, ferries, barges and ships for local waterway transportation for passengers and cargo, using the latest tech like solar and wind energy to power these vessels.

Here again the PM Gati Shakti Scheme helps as it provides a national forum and network for exchange of information, skilled manpower, expertise and technology between different states.

According to the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) chairman Mr Sanjay Bandopadhyay, Goa can triple its regional or state economy by proper and scientific utilization of its seven rivers or national waterways for transportation and passenger movement.

It will give the local shipbuilding and ancillary industry in Goa, which has been in existence for several decades a huge boost, providing jobs to hundreds each year.