Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit poll-bound Gujarat on Sunday Oct 22,2017 where he is expected to launch a slew of projects.
Modi, on his third visit to his home state this month, will land in Bhavnagar around 11 am. He will inaugurate the first phase of the Rs 615-crore ‘roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro)’ ferry service between Ghogha in Bhavnagar district and Dahej in Bharuch in the Gulf of Cambay
This ferry service will reduce will reduce the distance between the two towns from 310 kilometres by road to 30 kilometres. Modi had called it his “dream project”.
Ajay Bhadoo, Chief Executive Officer of Gujarat Maritime Board which is executing the ro-ro project, said the first phase of the service to be inaugurated by Modi on Sunday is meant for passengers.
In the second phase, which would be ready in two months, cars can also be carried between the two towns. “It is a complex project which involves the complicated marine structure of the Gulf of Cambay, on which it is built. The service reduces the distance between the two towns from 310 kilometres by road to 30 kilometres which can be covered in one hour,” Bhadoo said.
Modi had laid the foundation stone for the project in January 2012, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
In Vadodara, Modi will inaugurate eight different projects worth Rs 1,140 crore. Vadodara Municipal Commissioner Vinod Rao said Modi will dedicate to people a Rs 100-crore city command and control centre in Badamadi Garden, Rs 125-crore Janmahal city transport hub and multi-level parking (under PPP), a Rs 160 crore multi-modal city transport hub, Rs 267 crore waste-to-energy processing plant.
The other projects are a Rs 166-crore water treatment plant, two flyovers collectively worth Rs 265 crore, a Rs 55-crore deer safari park, and a Rs 6-crore veterinary hospital. He will also address people at Navlakhi compound in Vadodara.
Modi had last visited Vadodara, a constituency from where he contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election and won by a record margin, on October 22 last year to inaugurate a new airport terminal building and distribute assistance devices to the divyang (specially-abled) people. He had also won from Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh which he retained.
The PM had visited Gujarat on Monday when he addressed the BJP workers at a rally in Gandhinagar.
Prior to that, Modi had visited his hometown Vadnagar on October 8 and also inaugurated and laid foundation stones of various projects in Rajkot, Vadnagar, Gandhinagar, and Bharuch.
His visits assume significance as Assembly elections are due in Gujarat in December 2017
What is Gujarat’s Ro-Ro ferry service?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Phase 1 of the ‘roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro)’ ferry service between Ghogha and Dahej in Gujarat on Sunday Oct 22,2017
The ro-ro ferry will ply the Gulf of Khambhat between peninsular Saurashtra and South Gujarat. Ghogha situated in Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra lies 17 nautical miles (32 km), across the gulf from Dahej in Bharuch district.
A first of its kind in India, the ferry will be able to carry up to 100 vehicles (cars, buses and trucks) and 250 passengers between the two ports. The ro-ro ferry services are vessels made to carry wheeled cargo that are driven on and off the ferry on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle. The wheeled cargo includes, cars, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers, and railroad cars.
The term ro-ro is generally reserved for large ocean-going vessels. The vessels have either built-in or shore-based ramps that allow the cargo to be efficiently rolled on and off the vessel when in port. This is in opposite to the lift-on and lift-off (lo-lo) vessels, which use a crane to load and unload cargo.
This ferry service project cost stands at Rs 614 crore. The central government has allocated Rs 117 crore for dredging work at both Ghogha and Dahej under the Sagarmala initiative. The Gujarat government body in charge of marine and ports affairs along the state’s 1,600 km coastline, floated tenders for the project in 2011.
The service shall reduce the travel time between Ghogha in Saurashtra, and Dahej in South Gujarat, from about seven or eight hours, to just over an hour. The distance between the two places would be reduced to 31 km from the current distance of 360 km. When fully operationalised, it will also enable movement of vehicles. PM Modi will travel in the maiden voyage of this service. The ferry service is aimed at boosting the connectivity and infrastructure in Gujarat.
Earlier, an attempt was made by a private firm with the support from the state government to launch a modern passenger ferry service (the “Kutch-Sagar Setu”) between Okha in Devbhumi Dwarka district and Mandavi in Kutch district across the Gulf of Kutch in 2016. However, it had to be suspended after it faced technical and financial challenges.
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