The Railways, one of the most environment-friendly and energy-efficient mode of transportation, with these projects will help both in achieving climate goals and minimising the logistics cost of the country by reduce oil import (95 crore litres) and lower CO2 emissions (477 crore Kg), which is equivalent to the planting of 19 crore trees, the Minister said.Meanwhile, as part of the Vibrant Villages Programme 2.0, the government aims to further achieve its vision of safe and secure land borders. “The programme would help in the comprehensive development of the villages located in the blocks abutting international land borders (ILBs), other than the northern border (with China) already covered under VVP-I,” the Minister said.“With a total outlay of Rs 6,839 crore, the programme shall be implemented in select strategic villages in the States/UTs of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, J&K (UT), Ladakh (UT), Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal till the financial year 2028-29,” Vaishnaw said, adding that the interventions would be border-specific, state and village specific, based on Village Action Plans (VAP) prepared in a collaborative approach.“The programme shall provide funds for infrastructure development within the village or a cluster of villages, value chain development (through cooperatives, SHGs, etc), border specific outreach activity, education infrastructure like SMART classes, development of tourism circuits and works/projects to create diverse & sustainable livelihood opportunities in the border areas,” the MHA, the nodal agency to implement the programme, said in a statement.
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