 "A crow flies past a container ship docked at a port in Vallarpadam in Kochi")
As part of the National Perspective Plan (NPP) under the government’s ambitious ‘Sagarmala’ programme, over 150 projects have been identified. It is expected that the projects will mobilise more than Rs 4 lakh crore of investment in the next 10 years. These projects have been identified across the areas of port modernisation and new port development, port connectivity enhancement, port-led industrial development and coastal community development.
The Sagarmala programme of the government aims to promote port-led development in the country by harnessing India’s 7,500 kilometre (km) long coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways and strategic location on key international maritime trade routes. A NPP has been developed under this programme for the comprehensive development of India’s coastline and maritime sector. The draft report in this regard was submitted in February, 2016, and the findings were submitted to the Ministry of Road, Transport and Shipping.
Port modernisation & new port development
To meet the future growth in cargo volumes, 50 projects have been identified to increase the port capacity from 1,400 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 2,500 MTPA by 2025, at an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore. These projects include capacity augmentation at existing ports and development of 5-6 new ports, including a trans-shipment hub. Additionally, 104 initiatives have been identified to improve major port efficiency.
Port connectivity enhancement
To enhance port-connectivity to the country’s production and consumption centres, 65 projects have been proposed at an investment of more than Rs 2 lakh crore. This includes10,000 km of last mile port-connectivity infrastructure, 12 new freight expressways, heavy-haul rail corridor to transport coal, new pipelines for transporting crude and petroleum products, development of prioritised inland waterways and new multi-modal logistics hubs.
Port-led industrial development
For promoting port-led industrial development, 14 coastal economic zones – covering all the maritime states and Union territories – have been proposed. These include 13 port-based discrete manufacturing clusters in the labour intensive sectors of electronics, apparel, leather products, furniture and food-processing, and 14 large coastal clusters for basic input industries such as power, refineries and petrochemicals, steel and downstream industries like shipbuilding and automotive, and cement. Setting up infrastructure for these clusters will require an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore and will attract an additional Rs 7 lakh crore of industrial investment. These clusters are expected to boost India’s merchandise exports by $110 Billion by 2025.
Coastal community development
As part of the objective of coastal community development, skilling, fishermen and other community development projects have also been identified. Setting up of a community development fund is envisaged to enable these coastal communities’ related projects and initiatives. These projects will be showcased in the maiden Maritime India Summit 2016, for attracting potential investors and their implementation will be taken up starting FY 16-17. The Ministry of Shipping is also conducting stakeholder consultations with the maritime states and central ministries to finalise the NPP by March 2016.
