Focus: GS III- Infrastructure
Why in News?
The National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) met recently at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, and was chaired by Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW).
- The meeting explored the holistic development of coastal communities through a new project called “Sagartat Samriddhi Yojana.”
Sagartat Samriddhi Yojana
- During the launching of “Maritime India Vision 2030” in March 2021, the Prime Minister introduced the Sagarmala – Sagartat Samridhi Yojana.
- The MoPSW developed this extensive initiative to solve issues in the country’s coastal areas.
- The Sagartat Samriddhi Yojna has identified 1,049 projects with a total cost estimate of Rs 3,62,229 crores.
The four key areas in which this initiative falls include:
- Coastal Infrastructure Development
- Coastal Tourism
- Coastal Industrial Development
- Coastal Community Development
What is Sagarmala Programme?
- The Sagarmala programme is the flagship programme of the Ministry of Shipping to promote port-led development in the country through harnessing India’s 7,500 km long coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways and strategic location on key international maritime trade routes.
Objectives:
Vision of the Sagarmala Programme is to reduce logistics cost for EXIM and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment. This includes:
- Reducing cost of transporting domestic cargo through optimizing modal mix
- Lowering logistics cost of bulk commodities by locating future industrial capacities near the coast
- Improving export competitiveness by developing port proximate discrete manufacturing clusters
- Optimizing time/cost of EXIM container movement
Components of Sagarmala Programme are:
- Port Modernization & New Port Development: De-bottlenecking and capacity expansion of existing ports and development of new greenfield ports
- Port Connectivity Enhancement: Enhancing the connectivity of the ports to the hinterland, optimizing cost and time of cargo movement through multi-modal logistics solutions including domestic waterways (inland water transport and coastal shipping)
- Port-linked Industrialization: Developing port-proximate industrial clusters and Coastal Economic Zones to reduce logistics cost and time of EXIM and domestic cargo
- Coastal Community Development: Promoting sustainable development of coastal communities through skill development & livelihood generation activities, fisheries development, coastal tourism etc.
- Coastal Shipping & Inland Waterways Transport: Impetus to move cargo through the sustainable and environment-friendly coastal and inland waterways mode.
