Chennai: After proposing to modify the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, the Centre is now planning to change rules for the Shipping Industry, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said.
"In Shipping we are very much backward. We need all kinds of infrastructure. All laws are old. It should be thrown out," Gadkari said at a meeting organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry here late last night. The Ministry, after observing that the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 was old and required modifications, announced its decision to change it recently. "We have the 1988 Motor Vehicles Act. We are going to change it. We do not need an RTO (Regional Transport Office). There was corruption of crores of rupees (in RTO offices) and we are going to stop it," he said.
"We need to bring in transparency. We have already started the process. If somebody was seen violating rules through the online system, immediately we can cancel his license or see what are the earlier violations he has done," the minister said. Observing that the country requires nine joint ventures in ship building projects, he said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a decision. We are also making a policy (for bringing nine ship building projects). We are searching for national and international companies to have joint ventures."
"One company has come forward to do one ship building project. Similarly, we are also looking at ship breaking projects," he said. Similar to Roadways, Gadkari said, the government has planned to come out with a consultancy in which 500 projects in the defence sector would be cleared. "In defence, now we have decided to have a bank for 500 projects through DPR. We are making a DPR (detailed project report) and setting up a Project Management Consultancy.
For the consultancy, we are giving them responsibility and 500 projects would be cleared without any delay," he said.
Emphasising on the need to maximising efficiencies of our transportation structure, Gadkari said, "We need to have RoRo system through which we can bring a Maruti car from Delhi to Chennai. We have done like that from Goa to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. There is tremendous potential in that." Similar to setting up a sea port, the government would also encourage setting up of 'Bus Port' in all states, he said, adding "we are ready to offer finance in all states. The concept of sea port is behind this idea."
Referring to Larsen and Toubro withdrawing from road infrastructure projects valued at Rs 50,000 lakh crore, Gadkari said due to lack of land acquisition Rs 1.80 lakh crore worth projects were stuck. "Of the Rs 1.80 lakh crore projects, we made golden handshake with Larsen and Toubro for Rs 50,000 lakh crore projects. We have to find a way out for the remaining Rs 1.30 lakh crore. In due course of time, we will come out to manage it," he said.
The government is also looking at getting loans from various countries at low interest rates, Gadkari added. "We are planning to get loans from other countries. We are in discussion with many countries who can give loan at very low interest rate of 3-4 per cent," he said.
