PM Modi to inaugurate India’s 2nd MMT on Ganga at Sahibganj ,Jharkhand, on Sept. 12

Shashank Shekhar

Ranchi (Jharkhand) : PM Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation India’s second riverine Multi Modal Terminal (MMT) built on river Ganga at Sahibganj in Jharkhand on September 12, 2019.  He will inaugurate the state of the art terminal through a two -way digital communication system at an event at Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Minister of State for Shipping (Independent Charge) and Chemical and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya will be present at Sahibganj, Jharkhand.

Built at a cost of Rs 290 crore in a record time of about two years, PM Modi had himself laid the foundation stone of IWAI’s Sahibganj multimodal terminal in April, 2017. This is the second of the three Multi Modal Terminals being constructed on river Ganga under Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). In November, 2018, he had inaugurated the MMT at Varanasi.

The Multi-Modal Terminal at Sahibganj will open up industries of Jharkhand and Bihar to the global market and provide Indo-Nepal cargo connectivity through waterways route. It will play an important role in transportation of domestic coal from the local mines in Rajmahal area to various thermal power plants located along NW-1. Other than coal, stonechips, fertilisers, cement, and sugar are other commodities expected to be transported through the terminal.

The MMT will also help create direct employment to about 600 people and indirect employment to about 3,000 people in the region. The convergence of Road-Rail-River Transport at Sahibganj through the new MMT will connect this part of the hinterland to Kolkata, Haldia, and further to the Bay of Bengal. That apart, Sahibganj will get connected to North-East States through Bangladesh by river-sea route.

The capacity of the MMT is 30 lakh tonnes per annum. It will grow to 54.8 lakh tonnes per annum after an investment of Rs 376 crore for capacity enhancement in Phase II under PPP mode. The development in Phase II will be entirely made by the private concessionaire. A freight village is also proposed on 335 acres of land in contiguity with the terminal.

The MMTs are being built as part of the Jal Marg Vikas Project that aims to develop the stretch of river Ganga between Varanasi to Haldia for navigation of large vessels up to 1,500-2,000 tonnes weight, by maintaining a drought of 2-3 metres in this stretch of the river and setting up other systems required for safe navigation. The objective is to promote inland waterways as a cheaper and more environment friendly means of transport, especially for cargo movement.