New Delhi, Oct 6 (KNN) The Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Anil Swarup, who on Wednesday sought merger of his ministry with that of Mines, however, declared that all sort of paper work in his ministry will come to an end from 16th of this month, replacing it completely with digitalization for utmost transparency and efficiency.

According to a press release, speaking at Infrastructure Conclave-2016-Accelerating Growth with Inclusion & Equity organized by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Wednesday, Swarup also said that his ministry in consultation with Ministry of Shipping and Railway Board were working tirelessly to intensify movement of coal through ships, beginning of which has already been made between Paradeep and coastal Tamil Nadu.

Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Rajive Kumar who also was present on the occasion, however, added that inter-ministerial work was being accelerated at much faster pace for doubling the capacities of coal movement through ships by 2020 with state of Andhra taking a lead in this direction.

Elaborating on move proposed by Swarup on possible merger of Ministry of Coal with that of Mines, he said, “since the coal sector has been transformed with an amazing team work of my ministry in the last two years with all its past inaccuracies and inadequacies set right, it should be made redundant now and merge with mines ministry.  I am working on this direction…”.

“I will be competing two years as Secretary in the Ministry of Coal on 16th of October when the Prime Minister had asked me to clean up the mess in the coal ministry and make it a performing department, the challenge I have successfully accomplished and now the time has also come that all paper works and other such communication in the department of coal should be replaced with digitalization which will begin from 16th of this month”, Swarup said, according to the statement by PHDCCI.

In his observations, the Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Rajive Kumar also emphasized that Sagarmala Project as visualized by the government of the day would be implemented as scheduled as his ministry has been receiving the required support from NHAI, Railway Board and other organs of the government.

“Port led development would be one of the priorities of the Sagarmala project for which, I seek the support of private sector including the PHD Chamber for their optimum participation in this initiative of the government as it would drastically curtail the logistics cost which currently is estimated at 19.5 of national GDP to less than 10%”, he said.

President, PHD Chamber, Dr. Mahesh Gupta emphasized on timely government interference to sort out the problems of contractors that are engaged by it for putting up the required infrastructure both on roads, railways and other modes of transportation.