Sagarmala project: Government to spend Rs 70,000 crore on 12 major ports, says Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: The government’s ambitious Sagarmala project, which aims to develop port infrastructure along the country’s 7,500 km coastline, is likely to see an investment of more than Rs 70,000 crore in coming years.

“The project includes modernisation of our ports and islands, setting up of coastal economic zones, new major ports and fish harbours. We expect that the total investment in the project would be to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore,” shipping minister Nitin Gadkari said after chairing the first National Sagarmala Apex Committee meeting in Delhi on Monday.

Most of this investment is expected to be made by government. But some projects, including development of islands and tourism facilities, would be taken up in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. According to the plan, the government intends to develop 30 projects in the current fiscal at a cost of Rs 14,226 crore. The projects mainly include increasing the capacity of existing major ports and adding new ports. “We have identified 104 initiatives based on the report of an international consultant. The projects would be taken up in a phase-wise manner,” Gadkari added.

The Sagarmala meeting was attended by several ministers including railways minister Suresh Prabhu, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, environment minister Prakash Javdekar, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Niti Ayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya and minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Uma Bharti.



Representatives of the 13 coastal states were also present at the meeting. The new sites identified to be converted into ports are Sagar Island (West Bengal), Vadhavan (Maharashtra), Colachel ( Tamil Nadu) and Tadadi (Karnataka). Establishment of Indian Port Rail Corporation has also been done under Sagarmala project. The government could save around Rs 40,000 crore every year in logistics costs and time reduction for key cargo movement when Sagarmala is fully developed.

Under the initiative that also includes connecting ports with inland waterways, the government will set up 14 coastal economic zones and a special economic zone at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai. Free trade warehousing zones will be set up in Cochin and Ennore.

The shipping ministry has also requested states to set up maritime boards. The government will also set up eight automobile industrial zones at ports to recycle vehicles that are more than 10 years old. “We’ll launch a scheme to give incentives to people of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for surrendering vehicles older than 10 years. These vehicles would be recycled at these industrial zones,” Gadkari said.