Indian Minister spells out India’s infrastructure plans. Nation nurses ambitions of becoming automobile distribution hub for South and Southeast Asia. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aggressively pushing through the country’s ambitious infrastructure development projects, which need to be expeditiously implemented to support and flank the high-growth trajectory of the Indian economy. Nitin Gadkari, the minister for roads, transport, highways and shipping, who was recently in the U.S., said in an interview with the AJOT at the Indian Consulate General in New York that the Modi Government wanted to uplift the infrastructure and, in effect, bolster the economy. While there was a huge outlay earmarked for maritime projects, he added, India was also keen to expand and upgrade the country’s existing road, railway and waterways network. Gadkari met with U.S. politicians, business people and others to identify areas of mutual cooperation in the field of what he described as “intelligent transport management”, city traffic management and control center and other technology-based transport solutions. Potential Role of US Companies The Minister said that U.S. companies could provide their expertise and knowhow in joining India’s efforts to build up a modern and efficiently-operating distribution hub that would facilitate shipping and transportation, both international and domestic, to sustain the growth momentum. “We had a series of meetings with investors organized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Business Council on International Understanding and Goldman Sachs. These interactions were a follow-up to the deliberations at the Maritime India Summit held recently in Mumbai, where a large number of US companies had evinced keen interest in promoting bilateral cooperation with India in the maritime sector,” Gadkari said. An official in the Minister’s delegation told AJOT in that several foreign engineering companies were already involved in a number of important infrastructure projects. He cited the example of Malaysian company Scomi Engineering, which had built the monorail system in Mumbai, and was making its first local manufacturing bid in the Bengal Aerotropolish Projects (BAPL) in Durgapure in West Bengal. Scomi and some of its key vendor associates announced plans to invest huge sums in the BAPL to make rakes and logistics infrastructure for various transport systems, according to Indian sources. Meanwhile, over 21 Indian cities are planning to introduce the monorail as an option for their multi-modal urban transport system. Gadkari emphasized that infrastructural development was key to achieving India’s ambitious development goals. India, which already has some 96,000 km of well-developed roads and highways, has set a target of creating 200,000 km. One of the tragic developments in India, with the building of highways, is also the rise in the number of road accidents to 500,000. In New York, the Minister also met New York’s road safety authorities. “India is taking a number of measures such as installing video systems, etc. We are using the latest technology to ensure road and rail safety,” he added. Business opportunities for U.S. companies also arise with India showing interest in developing its waterway transportation of people and goods. India’s waterway transportation system, notorious for its underdeveloped structures and slow movement, needs to be overhauled and expanded to facilitate transportation of goods. “It is easier and cheaper to transport materials from Mumbai to Dubai than from Mumbai to other ports within India ... and we need to change that,” the minister said. Industrial Clusters India’s ambitious plan to develop itself into an important shipping point for automobiles could get a fillip with the creation of industrial clusters. Twenty-seven industrial clusters are to be created at ports, entailing a huge volume of funds. “We do not anticipate any problem raising funds in US dollars,” he said, adding that if there is a “will and a vision, there is always a way. Without vision, there can be no way … only surveys”. U.S. ports are showing keen interest in India’s port development, particularly the ambitious Sagarmala program, according to Indian officials; on the last leg of his U.S. visit, Gadkari also met with representatives of the Port of Long Beach in California. Gadkari touched on the question of joint venture opportunities with India’s container port Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) aimed at acquiring technology and intensifying bilateral trade. The Indian minister raised the prospect of investment opportunities for U.S. companies in development of new ports, construction of new berths/terminals in existing ports, coastal economic zones, dredging, ship building, ship repairing, ship recycling, development of inland waterways and coastal and cruise shipping. An ambitious infrastructure development program called the Sagarmala embraces some 150 projects with the potential of mobilizing $50-60 billion investment in infrastructure, and another $100 billion in promoting industrial growth. The government is creating maritime clusters for ancillary industrial support and design centers, as well as financial assistance to meet the challenge of lack of competitive advantage due to heavy subsidies provided by major shipbuilding countries to their shipbuilding industry. Gadkari told the U.S. maritime sector that thematic studies and action plans have been developed across sector for implementation, prominent elements of which include coastal shipping upgrading, coastal industrial greenfield plants, reduced time to export container by five days and reducing costs to export by US$ 50 per container. Gadkari also urged the financially-strong Indian diaspora in the U.S. to invest in India’s infrastructure development, including waterways, shipping and ports. Addressing the Silicon Valley chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), he invited Indian businesspeople to provide innovation and technology to connect with New Delhi’s programs such as Startup India, Make in India and Digital India Initiatives, focusing on India’s development in a number of sectors, particularly manufacturing, infrastructure, technology and innovation. A visit to the Tesla electric automobile plant in Fremont was the high point of his West Coast tour. He invited the automobile manufacturer to set up a joint venture with the Indian automobile industry, one of the oldest in Asia, to manufacture pollution-free commercial and public motor vehicles in India. Indeed, Gadkari urged Tesla executives to make India their manufacturing and distribution hub, and offered land near major Indian ports to facilitate exports of these India-made cars to South and Southeast Asia. With growing emphasis on fossil-free fuel to check the growing pollution in the country – India’s industrial pollution is among the highest in the world with the capital New Delhi registering record levels of pollution – the Indian Government is signaling a paradigm shift in its hitherto environmental policy. It also makes economic sense to use electric cars in an effort to reduce the oil import bill, which has been rising steadily.