The Sagarmala Project has received the approval of the Cabinet of the Council of Ministers of the Government of India as on March 25, 2015. In accordance with the Project plan, the Sagarmala Cell for exercise of monitoring functions and the Sagarmala Development Company, for implementation of the Project, has already been set up. The Ministry of Shipping (MoS) has also announced the draft NPP identifying more than 150 projects. These projects shall mobilize more than Rs. 4,00,000 crores in investments and shall enable creation of over 1,00,00,000 new jobs within the next 10 years. The draft NPP identifies four important pillars for development of Indian ports. These include port modernization and new port development, port connectivity enhancement, port – led industrial development and coastal community development.
For port modernization and new port development, 50 projects have been identified for capacity augmentation from 1400 Million Metric Tonne per Annum (MMTPA) to 2500 MMTPA by the year 2025 at an investment of more than Rs. 1,00,000 crores. For port connectivity enhancement, infrastructure strengthening through new freight expressways, heavy haul rail corridor to transport coal, new pipelines for transporting crude and petroleum products and development of inland waterways has been provided for. For port – led industrial development, several coastal economic zones (CEZs) have been planned as manufacturing clusters in the labour intensive sectors of electronics, apparel, leather products, furniture and food processing, and basic input industries such as power, refineries, petrochemicals, steel and cement industries shall be provided. As part of the coastal community development, skill development programmes and community development programmes have been identified.
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