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National

Integrated checkposts coming up on borders

Special Correspondent

CCEA clears facility for cargo, passenger traffic

Accident insurance cover for spice growers, workers
6,000 model schools to be set up in educationally backward blocks

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the setting up of integrated checkposts for cargo and passenger traffic at 13 entry points on the land borders with Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The checkposts, coming up at a cost of Rs. 635 crore, will have customs and immigration facilities, security and scanning equipment, health and quarantine facilities, duty-free shops, restaurants, banks and other financial services, restrooms, and waiting areas. They will also house offices of transport and logistics companies, dormitories for drivers and fuel and service stations.

Land Port Authority

A separate organisation, Land Port Authority of India, is to be established for the construction, management and maintenance of the checkposts. A Bill will be introduced in Parliament for setting up the organisation.

The checkposts will be set up on the Wagah border with Pakistan, at Raxaul on the border with Nepal, Moreh on the border with Myanmar, and Petrapole on the border with Bangladesh.

Chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the CCEA also gave its approval for deepening and widening of the approach channel and berth basin of the international container transhipment terminal at the Kochi port at a cost of Rs.381.25 crore, through a grants-in-aid of Rs. 297.42 crore and a loan assistance of Rs.83.83 crore.

It was decided to extend accident insurance cover, supported by the Price Stabilisation Fund Trust, to growers of spices and their workers. Till now, the scheme was applicable only to tea, coffee, rubber and tobacco growers and their workers. The annual premium has also been increased from Rs. 14 to 22 per person. The next of kin of the insured will be eligible to receive Rs.1 lakh in the event of their death.

Giving a boost to school education, the CCEA gave its nod for setting up 6,000 model schools in educationally backward blocks. The schools will match the standards of Kendriya Vidyalayas in infrastructure as also pupil-teacher ratio and curricula. The Centre will bear 75 per cent of the cost and the States 25 per cent. In the first phase, 2,500 schools will be set up.

The CCEA paved the way for the first rail link to Sikkim, giving its approval for a 52.7-km broad gauge line connecting Rangpo in the State with Sivok in West Bengal. The work, to be executed as a national project at a cost of Rs.1,339.48 crore, is expected to begin later this year and will be completed by 2015-16.

The CCEA gave its nod for the 110-MW Pare Hydroelectric Project in Arunachal Pradesh at a cost of Rs.574 crore. It will be commissioned in 44 months and the power generated by it used within the northeast.

Briefing reporters, Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Prithviraj Chavan said the decisions on extension of the accident insurance scheme and the setting up of model schools would be implemented immediately, except in the States where Assembly elections have been announced. There, the schemes would be implemented after the polls.

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