The Sagarmala Programme () is an initiative by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

to enhance the performance of the country's logistics sector. The programme envisages unlocking the potential of waterways and the coastline to minimize infrastructural investments required to meet these targets. It entails investing (2018) to set up new mega ports, modernizing India's existing ports, developing of 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) and Coastal Economic Units, enhancing port connectivity via road, rail, multi-modal logistics parks, pipelines & waterways and promoting coastal community development, with the aim of boosting merchandise exports by billion and generating around 10 million direct and

indirect jobs Investments into an industry or project can produce temporary and long-term employment. The resulting jobs are typically categorized as being one of three types. A direct job is employment created to fulfill the emand for a product or service. An ...

. The Sagarmala Programme is the flagship programme of the

Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways is the Indian ministry responsible for formulation and administration of the rules, regulations and laws relating to ports, shipping and waterways. The minister is Sarbananda Sonowal. Ministers ...

to promote port-led development in the country by exploiting India's 7,517 km long coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways and its strategic location on key international maritime trade routes. Sagarmala aims to modernize India's Ports, so that port-led development can be augmented and coastlines can be developed to contribute to India's growth. It also aims at "transforming the existing Ports into modern world-class Ports and integrate the development of the Ports, the Industrial clusters and hinterland and efficient evacuation systems through road, rail, inland and coastal waterways resulting in Ports becoming the drivers of economic activity in coastal areas."

Background

The Sagarmala Programme was originally mooted by the National Democratic Alliance government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003 as the maritime equivalent to the

Golden Quadrilateral The Golden Quadrilateral ( hi, स्वर्णिम चतुर्भुज, Svarnim Chaturbhuj; abbreviated GQ) is a national highway network connecting several major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India. It forms a ...

, another project under his government in the roads and highways sector. The Programme aimed to exploit India's vast coastlines and industrial waterways to drive industrial development. It was approved by the cabinet in March 2015. The National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) is composed of the Minister of Shipping with Cabinet Ministers from stakeholder ministries and ministers in charge of ports in India's maritime states. The NSAC approved the overall ''National Perspective Plan (NPP)'' and regularly reviews the progress of implementation of these plans. To assist in the implementation of Sagarmala projects, the Sagarmala Development Company Limited (SDCL) was incorporated on 31 August 2016, after receiving Cabinet approval on 20 July 2016, for providing funding support to project SPVs and projects in-line with Sagarmala objectives. Additionally, SDCL is also in the process of preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPRs) and feasibility studies for specific projects that could provide avenues for future equity investment by the company. The Sagarmala Development Company was incorporated after approval from the Indian Cabinet on 20 July 2016 with an initial authorized share capital of crore and subscribed share capital of crore, to give a push to port-led development. The present subscribed share capital of SDCL is crore. The Indian Port Rail & Ropeway Corporation Limited (IPRCL) was incorporated on 10 July 2015 to undertake the port-rail connectivity projects under Sagarmala Programme. Sethusamudram Corporation Ltd is also a participant public sector enterprise in this project. Inland & Coastal Shipping Ltd. (ICSL), SCI’s wholly owned subsidiary was incorporated in 2016 after Maritime India summit for undertaking/providing transport services through Inland waterways, coastal shipping and end to end logistics. ICSL and IWAI signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding on 22nd Jan’21 for operations and management of three IWAI cargo vessels i.e. MV Rabindranath Tagore, MV Lal Bahadur Shastri and MV Homi Bhabha. MV Rabindranath Tagore & MV Lal Bahadur Shastri have been taken over by ICSL on 22nd Jan’21 and 26th Feb’21 respectively. The Sagarmala National Perspective Plan was released by the Prime Minister on 14 April 2016 at the maiden Maritime India Summit 2016, with details on Project Plan and Implementation.

The scheme

Components

Under Sagarmala Programme, 577 projects, at an estimated investment of approximately , have been identified across port modernization & new port development, port connectivity enhancement, port-linked coastal economic zone industrialization and coastal community development for phase wise implementation over the period 2015 to 2035. As per the approved implementation plan of Sagarmala scheme, these projects are to be taken up by the relevant Central Ministries/Agencies and State Governments preferably through private/PPP mode. The details are as below. Progress As of 31-Mar-2018, a total of 492 projects () were under various stages of implementation, development and completion. As of 2021, only 172 projects out of the 802 sanctioned have been completed and the remaining 632 projects are under the implementation stage. Of these, only 13 out of 98 road connectivity projects to ports have been completed and 28 out of 91 rail connectivity projects

Port-modernization under Sagarmala Since about more than 90% of India's trade by volume is conducted via the country's maritime route, there is a continuous need to develop India's ports and trade-related infrastructure to accelerate growth in the manufacturing industry and to assist the 'Make in India' initiative. India has 12 major ports and approximately 200 non-major ports administered by Central and State Governments respectively. As per the studies conducted under the Sagarmala Programme, it is expected that by 2025, cargo traffic at Indian ports will be approximately 2500 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s per year while the current cargo handling capacity of Indian ports is only 1500 million tonnes per year. A roadmap has been prepared for increasing the Indian port capacity to over 3500 million tonnes per year by 2025 to cater to the growing traffic. This includes port operational efficiency improvement, capacity expansion of existing ports and new port development. Under Project Unnati, the global benchmarks were adopted to improve the efficiency and productivity KPIs for 12 major ports. Around 116 initiatives were identified across 12 major ports to unlock more than 100 MTPA capacity just through efficiency improvement. Out of which, 86 initiatives have been implemented to unlock around 80 MTPA capacity.

Mega Ports

Six megaports are planned in Sagarmala project. There are also Private ports under construction/reopening

Port-linked industrialization under Sagarmala

Coastal Economic Zones (CEZ) and Coastal Economic Units (CEU)

Coastal Economic Zones (CEZ) is an important component of the Sagarmala Programme aimed at port-led industrial development of 14 business-friendly Coastal Economic Zones (CEZ) with the investment of , centered around

ports in India India has a coastline spanning 7516.6 kilometres, forming one of the biggest peninsulas in the world. According to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, around 95 per cent of India's trading by volume and 68 per cent by value is done ...

spread across national coastline of 7,500 km, by using

Make in India Make in India is an initiative by the Government of India to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products made in India and incentivize dedicated investments into manufacturing. The policy approach was to crea ...

indigenous manufacturing scheme. Sectors targeted for manufacturing units are maritime and inland waterways, water transport, coastal and cruise shipping, and solar and wind energy generation, auto, telecom and IT, etc. Each CEZ will cover economic region consisting of several coastal districts with strong linkage to the ports in that region. Each CEZs will also create synergy with

industrial corridor An industrial corridor is a package of infrastructure spending allocated to a specific geographical area, with the intent to stimulate industrial development. An industrial corridor aims to create an area with a cluster of manufacturing or another ...

s passing through the region, such as Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project,

Mumbai-Bangalore economic corridor The Bengaluru–Mumbai Industrial Corridor (BMIC) is a proposed economic corridor in India between Mumbai and Bangalore. The corridor is spread across the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra and passes through major cities such as Davanagere, C ...

, Dedicated Freight Corridor,

Chennai Bangalore Industrial Corridor The Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor Project is an upcoming mega infrastructure project of Government of India. The corridor plans to come up along Chennai, Sriperumbudur, Ponnapanthangal, Ranipet, Suburbans of Vellore, Chittoor, Bangarup ...

Visakhapatnam–Chennai Industrial Corridor Visakhapatnam–Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC), also Vizag–Chennai Industrial Corridor, is a key part of the East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC), India's first coastal corridor. VCIC is aligned with the Golden Quadrilateral and is poised to ...

and

Amritsar Delhi Kolkata Industrial Corridor Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...

, etc."Decks cleared for first mega CEZ; 45 companies may invest Rs 15k-crore in phase-I."
Economic Times, 1 November 2017."Sagarmala: Port-led industrialization."

."The A to Z of coastal economic zones."

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the 1930s & currently owned by Samagrah Commercial Pvt Limited. It is published in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited ...

, 17 February 2016."Sagarmala Project proposes 14 coastal economic zones across India."

First Post ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...

, 29 November 2016. Each CEZ will have several Coastal Economic Units (CEU), and in turn each CEU will have several Port-Linked Industrial Clusters (PLIC). "Coastal Employment Units" (CEUs) serve as nodes within CEZ, each CEU industrial is an industrial estates with multiple industries. Each "Port-Linked Industrial Clusters" (PLIC) within CEU will have several manufacturing units. Benefits include national GDP growth with ease of doing business by boosting export by US$100 billion, 150,000 job creation by 2025, reduction in export cargo logistics cost and time, and increased global competitiveness of Indian exports.

List of CEZs proposed under the Sagarmala Programme

Total 14 CEZs are planned to be developed in phases across

coastal India Coastal India is a geo-cultural region in the Indian subcontinent that spans the entire coastline of India.(7516.6 km; Mainland: 5422.6 km, Island Territories: 2094 km) Region Coastal India spans from the south west Indian c ...

. #Kachch CEZ #Saurashtra CEZ #Suryapur CEZ #North Konkan CEZ #South Konkan CEZ #Dakshin Kanara CEZ #Malabar CEZ #Mannar CEZ #Poompuhar CEZ #VCIC South CEZ #VCIC Central CEZ #VCIC North CEZ #Kalinga CEZ #Gaud CEZ

Connectivity

Of the 51, port connectivity rail projects, 11 projects are already complete and rest are under execution.Projects worth Rs 44.6k crore underway for rail connectivity to ports
Economic Times.

List of Port-Linked Industrial Clusters (PLIC)

Total 37 port-linked industrial clusters across several sectors: * Discrete Manufacturing Cluster, total 23: *Petrochemical Cluster, total 4: * Power Cluster, total 4: * Steel Cluster, total 2: * Maritime Cluster, total 2: * Cement Cluster, total 2:

Other initiatives for promoting port-linked industrialization under Sagarmala

In November 2017, with the development of first Special Economic Zone centered around the busiest cargo ports in India that handles 40% of India's export-import volume,

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) or JLN Port, also known as Nhava Sheva Port, is the second largest container port in India after Mundra Port. Located in Navi Mumbai's Raigad district, this port on the Arabian Sea is accessed via Thane Cree ...

east of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, was initiated. Several large companies from telecom, auto and IT sectors are expected to bid for the 200 hectares of export-oriented manufacturing units in the SEZ to reduce export logistics cost, thus also generating direct jobs by infusing new technology, investment and world's best management practices. Further, development of Smart Industrial Port City (SIPC) at Paradip and at Kandla ports and Coastal Employment Units (CEUs) at V.O. Chaidambarnar Port Trust and Kamarajar Port Limited is under progress. Port-connectivity enhancement under Sagarmala Under Sagarmala Programme, the endeavor is to provide enhanced connectivity between the ports and the domestic production/consumption centres. More than 210 connectivity projects have been identified. Some of the types of connectivity projects considered are listed below: * Coastal Berths at various major and non-major ports * National waterways prioritized for development in the first phase * Heavy haul rail corridor from Talcher to Paradip * Connectivity to Dedicated freight corridors * Last mile rail and road connectivity projects * Major rail connectivity projects * Freight friendly Expressway projects connecting the major ports * Development of Multi-Modal Logistics Parks * POL Pipelines

Coastal community development under Sagarmala

Fisheries Sagarmala Programme in coordination with related Central Ministries and State Governments would fund capacity building, infrastructure, and social development projects related to value addition in fisheries, aquaculture and

cold chain A cold chain is a low temperature-controlled supply chain network. An unbroken cold chain is an uninterrupted series of refrigerated production, storage and distribution activities, along with associated equipment and logistics, which maintain qu ...

development. As part of the coastal community development component of the Sagarmala Programme, Ministry is part-funding fishing harbour projects in convergence with Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DADF). Coastal Tourism For promoting tourism in maritime states under Sagarmala, projects have been identified in convergence with Ministry of Tourism and tourism development departments of maritime state governments. Key coastal tourism projects include: * Development of Coastal Circuits under Swadesh Darshan Scheme of Ministry of Tourism * Development of infrastructure for promoting Cruise tourism * Development of lighthouses * National Maritime Heritage Museum Complex at Lothal * Underwater viewing gallery and restaurant at Beyt Dwarka

References

{{Government Schemes in India Modi administration initiatives Proposed transport infrastructure in India Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (India)