NEW DELHI: The Union Minister Raosaheb Danve said the upcoming dry port near Jalna will be ready by the end of 2021, for which the Centre had already provided Rs 350 crore. The dry port will be a landmark project in the development of Marathwada, he said. “The fencing work around the identified land of the dry port is already over and the construction of internal roads is in progress. The project needs rail connectivity and efforts are on to provide the same,” he said.

Addressing the media, Danve, who represents Jalna Lok Sabha constituency, said the Centre, in the past budgets, had ensured necessary funds.

“Even if the latest Union Budget has not made any major allocation for the dry port, the Centre has already ensured sufficient fund flow which will be utilised for the ongoing works,” he said.

The BJP leadership at the Centre and the state said the geographically strategic locations of Jalna and Aurangabad for upcoming dry port along with Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Samrudhhi Express Highway would make these cities “growth engines” of Maharashtra in the future.

To be built by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), the dry port near Jalna is expected to operate as one of the largest Major Ports of India with an upcoming container handling capacity of almost 10 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU). As announced earlier, JNPT envisaged the need to establish extended logistic facilities in the hinterland to facilitate the overall operations at the port.