• Union Minister Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone of the Rs 694 crore multimodal logistic park (MMLP) in Assam and said that it would serve as the growth engine for the state's economic development.

• The country’s first MMLP will be developed under Bharatmala Pariyojana.

• The work on the first phase of the Rs 694 crore project at Jogighopa on 317-acre land will begin next month by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) and will be completed by 2023.

• An MoU was signed between NHIDCL and Ashoka Paper Mills, Govt of Assam for sharing of land and logistics in Jogighopa.

• The park will be connected to air, road, rail and waterways. The distance of 154 km between Jogighopa and Guwahati will be covered by making a four-lane road on this stretch, a 3-km rail line will connect Jogighopa station to the MMLP, another 3-km rail link will connect it to the inland water terminal, and the road to newly developed Rupsi airport will be upgraded to four-lane for easier connectivity.

• The MMLP will have all the facilities like, warehouse, railway siding, cold storage, custom clearance house, yard facility, workshops, petrol pumps, truck parking, administrative building, boarding lodging, eating joints, water treatment plant, etc.

• This project is expected to provide direct or indirect employment to nearly 20 lakh people in the state.

• A total of 12 accident black spots have been identified on National Highways in Assam, of which three have been temporarily improved. All the black spots will be eradicated by the year 2023, Gadkari said.

Govt plans to develop 35 MMLPs in the country

• The ministry of road transport and highways has envisaged developing 35 multimodal logistic parks (MMLPs) in the country and work on preparing DPR (detailed project report) and feasibility report is underway. Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) will be formed for all these MMLPs, and professionally qualified CEOs will be appointed for each separately.

• Initial report and master plan is ready for the 346-acre MMLP with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Wardha Dry port area of Nagpur. A feasibility report is being prepared for the Bangalore MMLP, Sangrur warehouse complex in Punjab, Surat, Mumbai, Indore, Patna, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Coimbatore. DPR is being made for MMLP near Chennai Port, and studies have begun for MMLP in Pune and Ludhiana.

• Other 22 MMLPs are proposed in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Kandla, Vadodara, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jullundur, Bhatinda, Hissar, Ambala, Kota, Jaipur, Jagatsinghpur, Sundarnagar, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Nashik, Panaji, Bhopal, Raipur and Jammu.

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