NASHIK: The way to set up a dry port has now been somewhat cleared so that the agricultural produce of the district can be delivered to the country and abroad at a faster speed. As JNPT has agreed to work with National Highway Logistics Management Company, taking into account the fact that Maharashtra is a red zone while setting up a new ICD project as the state already has an ICD, it has been decided to set up the dry port project at Niphad.
MP Hemant Godse informed that this will speed up the work of setting up the dry port project which has been pending for the last few years. Agricultural produce is produced on a large scale in the district. This includes vegetables, grapes, onions, pomegranates etc.
Efforts are being made to establish a dry port in the district so that these agricultural products can be quickly delivered in the country and abroad for sale. Due to various taxes and outstanding loans on the site of the Niphad Co-op Sugar Factory proposed for the dry port project, it was difficult to set up the project on this site.
Due to this, MP Godse took the initiative and suggested the places at Shilapur and Mundegaon for dry ports so that the project does not go outside the district if there is any problem at the planned site for setting up the said project.
However, since there are many ICDs (Load Container Depots) in the state, there were problems during the construction of new ICD projects as Maharashtra falls in the red zone, so the dry port project was pending for the last few years. The National Highway Logistics Management has stepped forward to address this situation.
If the Multi-Model Industrial Park (MMIP) decides, they can get permission from the state to exclude Nashik as ICD. National Highway Logistics Management (NHLM) is a company of National Highway (NHAI) and a few days ago, National Highway Logistics Management wrote a letter to JNPT that they will work together to set up a Triport at Nashik.
JNPT has agreed to this proposal and information about this has been communicated by JNPT to the Ministry of Shipping. This will clear the ICD problem and the way to set up the dry port project at Niphad will soon be cleared.
MP Godse informed that the NHAI and JNPT will jointly set up the dry port, expressing the belief that this proposal will be approved by the Ministry of Shipping and will get administrative approval soon.
The dry port is to be connected by rail. Containers from the dry port will directly move by rail to JNPT in Mumbai. There will be a customs clearance point, value-added services like packaging, grading,loading/unloading, cold storage facilities and other infrastructure required for export of agricultural and industrial goods.
