By Newsgram Staff Writer

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government is planning to introduce a bill that will strengthen the waterways in the country. "A bill for declaration of 101 waterways as National Waterways would be introduced in the current Session of the Parliament," Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

Speaking at the meeting of Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Shipping here today, Gadkari said that development of waterways found feasible for navigation would commence from 2016-17.

He added that multimodal hubs, as proposed at Varanasi and Sahibganj, would give boost to industry, employment generation and GDP growth.

"There is a proposal to establish a multimodal grid with road and, wherever possible, rail and port connectivity with river terminals on the existing National Waterways and Barak river. Government has already approved the Jal Marg Vikas (NW-I) which is a component of this grid," the Shipping Minister said.

Presenting the profile of Vision 2020 for coastal shipping in India, the Minister said that development of cruise and coastal tourism would be brought into focus. The other features of the vision include coastal shipping as part of end-to-end logistics chain, integration of inland waterways with coastal roads and development of regional centers of coastal cargo, he added.