The Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, Mr Nitin Gadkari, has called upon state governments to cooperate with one another and with the Centre to expedite the projects for interlinking of rivers. He was addressing the fourteenth meeting of the Special Committee for Inter-linking of Rivers in New Delhi on Wednesday. He stressed upon the need to design better technical models that aimed at bringing down construction cost while maintaining quality so that projects do not languish for want of funds. He also called upon state governments to explore new financing models, including low-interest loans from foreign agencies.
Mr Gadkari said that inter-linking of rivers will bring a big social and economic change in the country, and usher in prosperity in many regions that are poorly developed today.
In order to resolve issues related to various projects, he said that clusters of states would be made and MoS Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal will soon visit states and hold meetings for on the spot discussion with the concerned state government on the various pending issues. Referring to the funding of the various inter-linking projects, Mr Gadkari said the time has come when one has to look for innovative funding mechanisms for these projects. He urged state governments to come forward with definite funding proposals which can be taken up with foreign funding agencies. He said his Ministry will provide all help to the states for this.
