Centre announces infrastructure projects, farmer support as part of 100 day programme

livemint.com:

₹76,220 crore port in Maharashtra that will boost cross-border trade and a ₹2,869.65 crore expansion of the airport at Varanasi—Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency. It also decided to increase the minimum support price for kharif crops and approved funds for a forensic university, Information and Broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters after the meeting.Read Also: In 100-day agenda, food processing ministry to incorporate reduction of food wastage in supply chainVaishnaw said the proposed “all-weather greenfield deepdraft major port" at Vadhavan in Maharashtra will be one of the top 10 ports in the world.The project will be carried out by Vadhavan Port Project Ltd (VPPL), a company set up by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) with a shareholding of 74% and 26%, respectively.The project cost includes land acquisition and infrastructure building.

The government also cleared building roads between the port and national highways and establishing rail linkages to the existing rail network. The project will create a cumulative capacity of 298 million metric tonnes (MMT) a year, including around 23.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent) of container handling capacity, an official statement said.It will aid trade flow through the planned India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor and can create around one million jobs, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Airports Authority of India (AAI) will develop the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Varanasi. It will enhance its passenger handling capacity to 9.9 million passengers a year from the existing 3.9 million passengers a year.The decisions signal the NDA government will continue its capital