Northeast to get a multi-modal logistics park soon : Nitin Gadkari

GUWAHATI : A multi-modal logistics hub coming up in Jogighopa, Assam, in the next couple of months would be “a game-changer for the Northeast”, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

“The Brahmaputra is there. We will have an airport, there’s the national highway network and the railways. It will be completed within two-three months,” Gadkari said.

The logistics park is being developed as part of the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana. Located along the Brahmaputra river, it will facilitate transportation via water, road, rail and air.

Spread over 300 acres, the Multi-Modal Logistics Park at Jogighopa near the under-development Inland Waterways Terminal will see a capital outlay of Rs 764 crore. Strategically located 154 km to the west of Guwahati, it can connect to Bhutan in the north and Bangladesh in the south through road and waterways, too.

The logistics park will be equipped with several facilities such as warehouse, railway siding, cold storage, customs clearance house, yard facility, workshops, petrol pumps, truck parking, administrative building, boarding lodging, food joints, water treatment plant, etc., according to a report.

A four-lane road will connect Jogighopa and Guwahati. A 3 km-long rail line will connect it to the Inland Waterways Terminal while another road will connect it to the state’s newly developed Rupsi airport near Dhubri.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has played a crucial role in the development of the Northeast. Besides the multi-modal logistics hub project, the ministry is in the process of carrying out 260 proposals of ropeways, cable cars, and funicular railways costing Rs 1,30,000 crore.

“We are making roads worth Rs 3 lakh crore in the Northeast. This infrastructure is going to be very useful for accelerating the socio-economic transformation of the area. We are changing the parameters… and I feel it is going to be a game-changer which will develop the Northeast,” Gadkari said, adding that this will create more employment opportunities in the region.

Among the 26 “roads as airstrips” projects in India where emergency landing of aircraft will be possible, many are located in the Northeast.

“Talk to the people there and they will tell the success story of road infrastructure in the Northeast. As it’s a hill area, there are a lot of problems,” the Road Transport and Highways Minister stated.