Government to invest Rs 25 lakh crore in inland waterways, ports 

Announcing the Centre's plans to inject Rs 25 lakh crore to strengthen inland waterways, ports and rail-road links, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said these projects will create four crore jobs as the focus of the NDA government is to uplift the poor. 
●    The 12 public ports in the country have made an overall profit of Rs 6,000 crore this year and the government aims to raise the profit up to Rs 35,000-40,000 crore in four years.
●    A sum of Rs 4 lakh crore would be spent for the development of port-rail connectivity. 
●    Centre has taken concrete steps to accelerate the pace of road construction, which has been enhanced to 24-25 km per day from the earlier level of 2 km per day. 
●    The target is to raise it further to 41 km per day. 
●    Similarly, an investment of around Rs 15 lakh crore would be made for development of the highway sector.
●    Further, an amount of Rs 8,200 crore would be pumped in to develop a new port at Paradip.
●    Rs 7,000 crore is being invested for establishing rail link between the coal belt of Talcher and Paradip port.