Centre to provide Rs 2,000 cr for Godavari waterway
Hyderabad, May 5: Union Minister for Road Transport and Water Resourceas Nitin Gadkari on Saturday announced that the Central government will sanction Rs 2,000 crore for inland waterway on Godavari River.
He asked Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to come forward to take 10 percent equity each in the special purpose vehicle to be formed by the ministry to execute the project.
Gadkari was speaking at a function to lay foundation stone for four infrastructure projects in Hyderabad.
He said Godavari waterway project will transform the economies of the three states. Stating that a feasibility study has already been completed, the minister said he will order a Detailed Project Report (DPR).
Gadkari was confident that the work on this project can start this year and asked the Telangana government to submit the proposal.
The length of the National Waterway 4 will be 1,184 km from Nasik, where Godavari starts to Bhadrachalam in Telangana to Rajahmundry. It proposed to be extended to Krishna River from Wazirabad to Galagali for another 628 km.
Stating that he has so far ordered infrastructure works worth Rs.10 lakh crore, the minister said there was no dearth of money and he was ready to take up the project by mobilising funds including loans in foreign exchange at two percent interest.
Gadkari said that inland waterways are his dream project, which can double the exports by reducing the logistics cost by 50 percent. He believes this will boost industry and provide employment.
He said work on Buckingham canal and Swarna River waterway had already started. Ganga River will have four multi-modal hubs and this could facilitate transportation of goods from Varanasi to Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and Myanmar. He believes this can transform the economy of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Earlier, Telangana's Industry and Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao said since Telangana is landlocked state, it needs help in developing inland waterways. He said the Godavari waterway could facilitate movement of a ship from Bay of Bengal to Maharashtra via Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The minister said barrages being built under Kaleswaram project will have the provision to take ships to Godavari.
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India focused on practical applications of AI to solve population-scale challenges: Vaishnaw
New Delhi (PTI): IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said India is focused on practical applications of AI, including enterprise productivity, and solutions for population-scale challenges such as healthcare, agriculture, and climate change.
Speaking at a research symposium at the AI Impact Summit, the minister also expressed happiness over the strong participation and optimism shown by young people at an AI Expo on Tuesday.
He informed that about 2.5 lakh attendees, mostly under the age of 30, took part across the exhibition area.
"It was a phenomenal response when I interacted with the young minds. I was so surprised by the optimism that most of the young people expressed towards this opportunity which is coming for them," Vaishnaw said.
The minister said he was feeling hopeful for a totally new future for India and for the world.
"We, in India, are very focused on AI in the edge, AI for use cases, AI for solving real-world problems, AI for improving the productivity in the enterprises, for population-scale problems like healthcare, like agriculture, like climate change. These are things we are focussed on here in India. And the AI submit brings that opportunity," he said.
The minister asked participants of the symposium to come out with solid concrete suggestions on how to make AI safe. AI is a great tool and should be used for the benefit of humans.
The India AI Impact Summit, one of the country's largest global gatherings on artificial intelligence, has brought together policymakers, industry leaders and technology experts, and deliberations are on around AI innovation, governance and real-world applications in New Delhi.
