The Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Chemical & Fertilizers Shri Mansukh L Mandaviya was on a one day visit to Varanasi today. During his visit he reviewed the progress of national highways works in and around the city, visited the Multi-Modal Terminal Hub being constructed under the World Bank aided Jal Marg Vikas project on river Ganga and inaugurated a Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra.

Shri Mandaviya held a meeting with the officers of Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and Regional Officers of NHAI. He said that national highways are the backbone of the infrastructure of a country and his Government will make all efforts to improve the country’s infrastructure. At present there are seven ongoing National Highways works worth Rs. 5260 crores in the Varanasi city.  In addition to this, two road projects with the estimated cost of Rs. 5,764 crores are in the pipeline.

The Minister also visited the Multi-Modal Terminal hub at Varanasi, being constructed at a cost of Rs169.70 crore under Jal Marg Vikas project. The terminal will have a capacity of 0.54 Million Tonnes Per Annum. The construction work of the terminal is expected to be completed by November, 2018. A proposal to establish a Freight Village and Logistic Hub in Varanasi is also under consideration of the Government, to provide required infrastructure with state of the art equipment and all modes of transport vis-à-vis rail, road and waterways to reduce logistics cost and transportation time of goods and to facilitate ease of doing business.

In order to make available quality generic medicines at affordable prices, Shri Mandaviya also inaugurated a Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra at Ramarepur Pahariya in Varanasi.    

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