New Delhi, Feb 5 (DHNS): The Ministry of Shipping has prepared a plan to set up 27 industrial clusters at ports in different parts of the country aimed at attracting global automobile parts manufacturers.

A total of Rs 8 lakh crore will be invested for these industrial corridors in the next five to eight years, and the government expects that it will generate 40 lakh direct and another 60 lakh indirect jobs, Union Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said here.

The government will spend another Rs 5 lakh crore to provide the road and railway connectivity to these clusters, the minister said.

Old vehicles can be transported to automobile manufacturing hubs set up in ports and they can be recycled into finished products. “Besides, these hubs can also import old vehicles from other countries for scrapping and manufacturing new products. It will help us in Make in India, and a global leader in automobile parts manufacturing,” he said.

Besides, there industrial clusters will also have units related to petrochemicals, cement, furniture-based industries, electronics, apparel, and other sectors.

The projects have been formulated as part of the National Perspective Plan (NPP) for the Sagarmala programme, which is an ambitious project for port-led development of India’s coastal cities.

Gadkari also said that the government will identify the cities to create multi-modal transport hubs.

These transportation hubs will bring together all modes of public transport — rail, air, roads and waterways. With airports and railway stations situated at different parts in most of the cities, the government wanted to integrate with each other to help commuters and ease the traffic congestion in urban areas.

The Ministry of Road Transport has launched pilots for multi-modal in Varanasi and Nagpur, and once they are completely operational, the government will expand this to other cities too. This integrated travel approach will help in reducing traffic congestion, and also bring down logistics costs.