Border Infrastructure: Modi government driving strategic projects with radical changes

[anant_s]

In the idyllic Andaman and Nicobar islands - fast emerging as India's strategic and economic arm into the Indian Ocean - a small strip of sea separates Port Blair from the small but upcoming town of Bamboo Flat. On the mainland, up North the Jammu-Akhnoor road has for years been a choking point for traffic heading up to Poonch, including military convoys that service troops along the Line of Control. In the Northeast, trade connections with Myanmar and Bangladesh have for decades been held ransom to shoddy roads and poor infrastructure.

A radical new approach is now being adopted to accelerate projects to unclog these bottlenecks, along with work on hundreds of other strategic projects, as the Narendra Modi government sharpens focus on creating infrastructure along India's borders. From the Bharat Mala project (it envisages a road network along India's land boundary, stretching from Gujarat to Mizoram) to Sagar Mala (under which a coastal infrastructure will be set up along the nation's vast shoreline), the government's intention is clear: bring about a road and infra construction boom to help drive trade.

While the idea is not new, the approach has been different - a newly created corporation has been empowered to execute projects worth Rs 34,300 crore and has been freed of red tape that traditionally binds government agencies on mega projects. And, execution has been rapid with road projects of nearly 3,200 km activated in the past year.
Central to the change has been the creation of the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), which last year took over several projects from the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), mostly in the Northeast but also in a few other strategic areas. Its agenda is simple: create 10,000 km of roads by 2020 and revitalise India's connections with the neighbourhood.

The changeover from BRO has been crucial - there are endless tales of roads passing deadlines by several years and construction costs quadrupling during execution.

"Efficiency and transparency are the two key areas we are focusing on. Using e-tools for project monitoring and awarding of contracts, and an efficient dispute-resolution mechanism have been (the highlight of) our approach," says NHIDCL Managing Director Anand Kumar. Several critical projects have been fast-tracked, given the focus of the government on creating infrastructure.

Consider this: In Port Blair, a detailed study on what could be India's first undersea transportation tunnel is set to commence soon. The idea is to construct a 1.5-kilometre tunnel connecting the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Bamboo Flat. Oversea connection is impossible due to the heavy naval activity in the area.

A similar undersea project is also being planned in West Bengal, to connect Sagar Island and Kakdwip with a 3.5 km tunnel. In the Northeast, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari last month, dedicated the final Indian stretch of the Stilwell road, right up to the Myanmar border. The Asian Development Bank is preparing a project report on connecting Manipur's capital Imphal with the town of Moreh near the border.

Insiders say doing away with the old is central to the project. The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has, for example, created a new working group last month that has just one agenda: approve new infrastructure construction technologies for use in India. The committee has been empowered to approve within a month any new, internationally proven, technology for use in India, doing away from the archaic way of clearances that would require years if not decades for approvals by the government.

Old challenges still remain, though, the biggest being land acquisition, costs of which have gone through the roof. "While in the past locals would pool resources together and offer us free land to construct roads, the demands in the Northeast for land that is virtually worthless are astounding, in some cases as much as 40 times the market value," an official says. This may be a challenge that would take a lot to resolve. In fact, a lot depends on the ability of state governments to convince landowners on the value a road can bring to a region.

Another major focus of the new government agency is building regional connectivity to promote cross-border trade and commerce. The plan is to expand 500 km of roads in the northeastern region to enable transport with other South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation member countries.

The connection between Imphal and Moreh is part of these projects. "All we need to connect Tripura to Chittagong is a bridge and a sea port would be available to the Northeast," says Vijay Chhibber, secretary at the roads transport & highways ministry.
India is now planning to use international funding through NHIDCL to push through these border connectivity projects. While the Asian Development Bank funds are to be utilised to connect Imphal to Myanmar, funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency is being planned to connect the Assam and Meghalaya borders to Bangladesh. The crucial bridge that could connect Tripura to the Bay of Bengal port of Chittagong in Bangladesh is also being planned through JICA funding.

The next two years will be critical to evaluate whether this new approach is working and at stake are India's strategic linkages, and the future of trade in the region.

Border Infrastructure: Modi government driving strategic projects with radical changes - The Economic Times

 

[anant_s]

About Sagar mala Project
India’s Garland of the Seas
The heat and dust of the Indian general election has generated several election manifestos, some of which would make ample sense in post-world war Europe; the Soviet side of Europe. However, amid the general ambitious promises made by political parties, one proposed development plan is deserving of discussion.

The Sagar Mala (Garland of the Seas) project, mentioned in the manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), looks at an economic model of port-led development through modernising existing ports, developing new ports and interconnecting all ports (in the shape of garland).

Sagar Mala is essentially a long-term development plan to enhance India’s maritime sector by connecting all ports along the Indian coast by the creation of a National Seaway which would develop a comprehensive network of waterways in order to avoid inefficient and expensive modes of inland transportation.

The focus will be on developing the most efficient use of existing port infrastructure rather than the addition of new capacity which would be under-utilised.

The Sagar Mala project was first mooted in August 2003 by former Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, head of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

However, when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) – a coalition of Indian National Congress and other parties – secured power at the 2004 Parliamentary Election, the Sagar Mala project was shelved.

The new government proceeded with the Ministry of Shipping’s National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) and later formulated “The Maritime Agenda 2010-2020” in 2010.

The major thrust of the Sagar Mala project was to encourage private and foreign investment under a landlord model in order to capitalise on the expected growth in Indian seaborne trade. While both the NMDP and Maritime Agenda were developed along similar lines – and a lot of work has been initiated though not completed – both these plans lacked the holistic vision to build efficiencies in India’s logistics sector.

In 2013, India imported 175.6Mt of coal (136Mt thermal and 39.6Mt coking coal) with the majority coming in through the ports of Gujarat (36.9%), Andhra Pradesh (23.4%) and Odisha (12.4%). These imports are not fully consumed within those states with a percentage flowing in to neighbouring land-locked states by rail or road.

Salva Report estimates Indian coal imports will grow by 10% CAGR to 282.3Mt by 2018, which will put further pressure on current port infrastructure. The Sagar Mala project, with a focus on development of coastal shipping, inland waterways and the improvement in port connectivity with other ports if implemented properly, would go a long way to addressing current and future bottlenecks in the coal chain.

The Sagar Mala proposal also includes details about shipbuilding and repairing, coastal shipping and maritime training. A detailed breakdown of planned expenditure of the project was also provided during 2003, though clearly these figures need to be revised.

Source: The Financial Express, 6 November 2003

The initial proposal also assigned ports to land-locked states and union territories which the local governments would be able to develop by sharing required investment. Currently a number of northern states use multiuser ports in the coastal states of Gujarat, West Bengal or Odisha. The Sagar Mala project would ensure these land-locked states could develop enough port capacity to meet their coal (and other import) needs.

The 2003 draft report estimated total cost of the project at US$18Bn, which was to be partly funded by the government through the implementation of a proposed maritime development levy (US$0.80/t on overseas cargo and US$0.30/t on coastal cargo).

There is speculation the Sagar Mala project has been revived by BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who has been the Chief Minister (CM) of Gujarat since 2001 and is now serving his fourth consecutive term. When the project was first discussed, the Gujarat Maritime Board alone recorded high levels of utilisation of non-major ports in the state.

Gujarat’s state government has been proactive in implementing port liberalization and the Gujarat Maritime Board was the first state maritime board of India, formed in 1982 with a vision to streamline the development of its port sector. In the last couple of decades, Gujarat has developed world class port infrastructure and has captured a major share of Indian seaborne traffic.

If Modi is elected Prime Minister and is able to implement a maritime development plan following the structure of the Sagar Mala project, it would present huge trading opportunities for India and, for a struggling economy looking for infrastructural spending in order to pump the economy, could be exactly what is needed.

What remains to be seen though, is whether Sagar Mala is a sincere effort to tap India’s vast maritime sector potential or just a political gimmick pulled out for the elections.
India's Garland of the Seas - HDR

 

[Echo_419]

About Sagar mala Project
India’s Garland of the Seas
The heat and dust of the Indian general election has generated several election manifestos, some of which would make ample sense in post-world war Europe; the Soviet side of Europe. However, amid the general ambitious promises made by political parties, one proposed development plan is deserving of discussion.

The Sagar Mala (Garland of the Seas) project, mentioned in the manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), looks at an economic model of port-led development through modernising existing ports, developing new ports and interconnecting all ports (in the shape of garland).

Sagar Mala is essentially a long-term development plan to enhance India’s maritime sector by connecting all ports along the Indian coast by the creation of a National Seaway which would develop a comprehensive network of waterways in order to avoid inefficient and expensive modes of inland transportation.

The focus will be on developing the most efficient use of existing port infrastructure rather than the addition of new capacity which would be under-utilised.

The Sagar Mala project was first mooted in August 2003 by former Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, head of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

However, when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) – a coalition of Indian National Congress and other parties – secured power at the 2004 Parliamentary Election, the Sagar Mala project was shelved.

The new government proceeded with the Ministry of Shipping’s National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) and later formulated “The Maritime Agenda 2010-2020” in 2010.

The major thrust of the Sagar Mala project was to encourage private and foreign investment under a landlord model in order to capitalise on the expected growth in Indian seaborne trade. While both the NMDP and Maritime Agenda were developed along similar lines – and a lot of work has been initiated though not completed – both these plans lacked the holistic vision to build efficiencies in India’s logistics sector.

In 2013, India imported 175.6Mt of coal (136Mt thermal and 39.6Mt coking coal) with the majority coming in through the ports of Gujarat (36.9%), Andhra Pradesh (23.4%) and Odisha (12.4%). These imports are not fully consumed within those states with a percentage flowing in to neighbouring land-locked states by rail or road.

Salva Report estimates Indian coal imports will grow by 10% CAGR to 282.3Mt by 2018, which will put further pressure on current port infrastructure. The Sagar Mala project, with a focus on development of coastal shipping, inland waterways and the improvement in port connectivity with other ports if implemented properly, would go a long way to addressing current and future bottlenecks in the coal chain.

The Sagar Mala proposal also includes details about shipbuilding and repairing, coastal shipping and maritime training. A detailed breakdown of planned expenditure of the project was also provided during 2003, though clearly these figures need to be revised.

Source: The Financial Express, 6 November 2003

The initial proposal also assigned ports to land-locked states and union territories which the local governments would be able to develop by sharing required investment. Currently a number of northern states use multiuser ports in the coastal states of Gujarat, West Bengal or Odisha. The Sagar Mala project would ensure these land-locked states could develop enough port capacity to meet their coal (and other import) needs.

The 2003 draft report estimated total cost of the project at US$18Bn, which was to be partly funded by the government through the implementation of a proposed maritime development levy (US$0.80/t on overseas cargo and US$0.30/t on coastal cargo).

There is speculation the Sagar Mala project has been revived by BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who has been the Chief Minister (CM) of Gujarat since 2001 and is now serving his fourth consecutive term. When the project was first discussed, the Gujarat Maritime Board alone recorded high levels of utilisation of non-major ports in the state.

Gujarat’s state government has been proactive in implementing port liberalization and the Gujarat Maritime Board was the first state maritime board of India, formed in 1982 with a vision to streamline the development of its port sector. In the last couple of decades, Gujarat has developed world class port infrastructure and has captured a major share of Indian seaborne traffic.

If Modi is elected Prime Minister and is able to implement a maritime development plan following the structure of the Sagar Mala project, it would present huge trading opportunities for India and, for a struggling economy looking for infrastructural spending in order to pump the economy, could be exactly what is needed.

What remains to be seen though, is whether Sagar Mala is a sincere effort to tap India’s vast maritime sector potential or just a political gimmick pulled out for the elections.
India's Garland of the Seas - HDR

View attachment 222030

Let's hope both the projects are a success

 

[Optimos Prime IA]

Consider this: In Port Blair, a detailed study on what could be India's first undersea transportation tunnel is set to commence soon. The idea is to construct a 1.5-kilometre tunnel connecting the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Bamboo Flat.

 

[anant_s]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his ambitious project 'Bharat Mala' which is on the lines of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 'Golden Quadrilateral'.

'Bharat Mala' is a road built along India's land boarder from Gujarat to Mizoram connecting to the road network in coastal states from Maharashtra to Bengal. As its like garlanding the Indian territory, Such a name was chosen for it.

The project which is going to be launched by the end of 2015 will be completed within the next 5 years and Rs 14,000 crore has been allotted for it.

Building roads along the west-to-east land borders covers a distance of 5,300 km. The project starts from Gujarat & Rajasthan, then covers Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and Mizoram. Bharat Mala is an attempt to strengthen road connectivity in border areas.