India is richly blessed with natural maritime
advantages, with a 7500 km coastline covering 13 states and union territories,
a strategic geographic location on key international trade routes and 14,500 km
of navigable and potentially navigable waterways. Maritime logistics has been
an important component of the Indian economy, accounting for 90 % of EXIM trade
by volume and 72% by value.
The growth of India’s maritime sector is
constrained due to many developmental, procedural and policy related challenges
namely, involvement of multiple agencies in development of infrastructure to
promote industrialization, trade, tourism and transportation; presence of a
dual institutional structure that has led to development of major and non-major
ports as separate, unconnected entities; lack of requisite infrastructure for evacuation
from major and non-major ports leading to sub-optimal transport modal mix;
limited hinterland linkages that increases the cost of transportation and cargo
movement; limited centers for manufacturing and urban and economic activities
in the hinterland; low penetration of coastal and inland shipping in India,
limited mechanization and procedural bottlenecks and lack of scale, deep draft
and other facilities at various ports in India
Coastal and island waterway transportation is
energy efficient, eco-friendly and reduces logistics costs for domestic
freight. However, the Indian coastline and river network has historically
remained underleveraged. Inadequate focus on developing coastal shipping and
inland waterways for domestic (non EXIM) logistics has skewed the modal mix of
transport in India with a disproportionately high share of roadways. Raw
material often travels a large distance from coastal areas to the hinterland
and then finished products travel back from hinterland to the coast for
exports. This reduces competitiveness of Indian exports compared to other
exporting countries. Internationally, several ports have been successful in
generating higher value-addition and
jobs inside the port area compared to the metropolitan area.
Launch
of Sagarmala Program
Sagarmala project of the Ministry of Shipping, led by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, was
approved in March 2015 and the National Perspective Plan was launched by PM
Narendra Modi in April 2016.
The prime objective of the Sagarmala project is to
promote Port-Led direct and indirect development, strengthen port and
evacuation infrastructure, simplify procedures used at ports for cargo
movement, develop new lines/linkages for transport (including roads, rail,
inland waterways and coastal routes), setting up of logistic hubs and to
provide transport infrastructure to and from ports for quick, efficient,
hassle-free and seamless cargo movement. The project aims to unlock the full
potential of India’s coastline and waterways.
The Sagarmala project focuses on 6 pillars of
development 1) Port Modernization 2) Port Connectivity 3) Port Industrialization 4) Coastal
Community Development 5) Port
Infrastructure Enhancement through capacity enhancement and setting up of new
ports 6) Efficient Evacuation to and from hinterland/Logistics.
The projects identified under Sagarmala are
expected to
- double the share of domestic waterways (inland & coastal) in the modal mix.
- generate logistic cost savings of Rs. 35,000-40,000 crore per annum.
- boost merchandize exports by USD 110 billion.
- enable creation of 1 crore new jobs, including 40 Lac direct jobs in the next 10 years.
- Total 224 projects worth Rs. 1.85 Lakh crore awarded till 31 March’18. 196 projects worth Rs. 71,868 crore expected to be awarded in 2018-19.
- 59 projects worth Rs. 11,299 crores have been completed till 31 March’18. 98 projects worth Rs. 31,046 crores expected to be completed in 2018-19.
- Innovative projects like Gogha-Dahej RO-Pax Ferry Services Project, RO-RO Services Project at Mandwa and Majauli in Assam launched.
- A roadmap has been created for increasing the Indian port capacity to 3500+ MMTPA to cater to the projected traffic of 2500 MMTPA by 2025.
- About 200 projects costing around Rs. 2.5 Lakh Crore that have been identified under Sagarmala for enhancing connectivity to Indian ports. These include 112 road projects, 70 Rail projects, 11 inland waterways projects, 3 pipeline projects and 15 multimodal logistics parks.
- In Rajasthan, 2 Multi-Modal logistics parks are under development by CONCOR at Swarupganj and Phulera. In Maharashtra, 4 Multi-Modal logistics parks are under development by JNPT at Jalna, Wardha, Sangli and Nashik. Apart from this, important places like Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and places like Pune, Satara, Mumbai/Navi Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri at Maharashtra are being connected through Road/Rail with Ports.
- For promoting port-led industrialization, 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) covering all the Maritime States and Union Territories have been identified. The list of proposed (CEZs) are Kachch, Saurashtra, Suryapur in Gujarat, North Konkan and South Konkan in Maharashtra & Goa, Dakshin kinara in Karnataka, Malabar in Kerala, Mannar, Poompuhar, VCIC South in Tamil Nadu, VCIC Central, VCIC North in Andra Pradesh, Kalinga in Odisha and Gaud in West Bengal.
- 6 new port locations, namely – Vadhavan (Maharashtra), Enayam (Tamil Nadu), Tajpur (West Bengal), Paradip Outer Harbour (Odisha), Sirkazhi (Tamil Nadu), Belekeri (Karnataka) have been identified.
- Indian Port Rail Corporation Limited (IPRCL) has taken up 35 last mile works (cost: Rs. 18,832 Cr) across 9 major ports.
- Total 115 road connectivity projects (Rs. 176,359 Cr, 8,727 Km) have been identified under Sagarmala to be implemented.
- Thirty five potential port-linked industrial clusters across three sectors, namely – Energy, Materials and Discrete Manufacturing, have been identified. These include 12 bulk clusters for basic input industries such as Power, Refineries & Petrochemicals, Steel and Cement and 23 discrete manufacturing clusters, in the labour intensive sectors of Electronics, Apparel, Leather Products, Furniture and Food-Processing etc.
- A world class, state of the art Centre of Excellence in Maritime and Shipbuilding (CEMS), first of its kind in Asia, a start up in skill development for maritime and shipbuilding sector with campuses at Vishakhapatnam and Mumbai was launched by Minister of Shipping on 17th Nov 2017 at a cost of Rs 766 crore.
- The National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts (NTCPWC), at IIT Madras is being set up at a cost of Rs. 70.5 crore to study engineering issues related to ports, waterways and coasts and in the country. NTCPWC will act as a technology arm of Ministry of Shipping for providing the needful technological support to Ports, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and all other related institutions.
- PROJECT UNNATI was launched to benchmark operational and financial performance of the 12 major ports with selected Indian private ports and best-in-class international ports for identifying improvement areas and develop a comprehensive improvement roadmap for each of the 12 major ports. Under Project UNNATI 116 initiatives have been identified for various major ports. Out of the 116 initiatives, 86 have been implemented so far.
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