Sagar Mala

Sagar Mala was announced by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the Independence Day in 2003 with the objective of achieving rapid capacity expansion and modernisation of ports along the country's east and west coasts.  The project envisaged developing India's ports to levels comparable with the best global ports in terms of infrastructure, efficiency and quality of service, increasing the tonnage capacity, upgrading and creating ship building and ship repair facilities and increase the use of inland waterways for transportation.

On 25 March 2015, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave the final nod to proceed with the Sagarmala Project and prepare the concept and institutional framework. It was a significant development in India’s growth story. Taking ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s dream project forward, Modi has rightly identified Sagarmala as a crucial infrastructure initiative whose development has the potential to boost India’s GDP by 2%.

India is bound by sea on three sides and has a 7,516.6 km coastline, making it the 7th largest in the world. Therefore, it is only natural that Indian ports handle 90% of the export-import trade volume. But that does not tell the entire story. The railways contribute 9% to the GDP, the road sector contributes 6%, whereas the ports’ share of GDP is only 1%.

With the promise of modernising and upgrading 200-odd ports, starting with 12 major ones operated by the Centre, 12 smart cities, Coastal Economic Zones, new railway connectivity and a new legislation to nationalise 111 internal waterways for cheap transportation and granting infrastructure status to ship-building in Kochi and Kandla, Gadkari  unveiled what looked like a rather ambitious blueprint of coastline development.


Calling it “Blue revolution — Sagar Mala project” that would not just rival China’s port-land infrastructure but would be comparable to any of the first world facilities, Gadkari said, “It is the priority project of the Prime Minister.”

One of the things that could get announced shortly is the development of marinas and modern jetties across India’s coastline. That would allow luxury yachting and holiday cruises to finally take off in India in a very big way. 

The Sagarmala initiative will address challenges by focusing on three pillars of development, namely

(i) Supporting and enabling Port-led Development through appropriate policy and institutional interventions and providing for an institutional framework for ensuring inter-agency and ministries/departments/states’ collaboration for integrated development, 

(ii) Port Infrastructure Enhancement, including modernization and setting up of new ports, and 


(iii)  Efficient Evacuation to and from hinterland.”

"Inland waterways will help in saving logistics costs and boost movement of goods and passengers across the country. Besides, they will also save around Rs 10,000 crore per year while transporting coal, a crucial resource," Nitin Gadkari , Minister for Shipping, Road Transportation said. 


The waterways is a cheaper and environment friendly medium for transporting of goods, he said adding one HP moves 150 kg on road, 500 kg on rail and 4,000 kg on water besides one litre of fuel moves 24 tonne/km on road, 85 tonne/km on rail and 105 tonne/km on water. 


Parliament is expected to approve the bill to convert 111 rivers across India into National Waterways during its Winter session, 2015.

National Waterways List of Rivers:

The nine rivers of Assam — Barak, Subansiri, Brahmaputra, Gangadhar, Aai, Beki, Puthimari, Kapili and Dehing found a place in the list.

Four Rivers in Meghalaya : Jinjiram, Kynshi, Simsang, Umngot (Dawki) 

Ref:

1. http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/government/modis-sagarmala-initiative-for-development-of-coastal-and-port-cities
2. http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-policy-watch-sagarmala-port-of-call-2090694
3. http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Government-Strings-Sagar-Mala-Blueprint/2015/03/27/article2732489.ece
4. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/shipping-/-transport/transporting-coal-via-waterways-can-save-rs-10000-crore-annually-nitin-gadkari/articleshow/49959544.cms

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This blog is intended to list all major projects initiated by or supported by NDA Govt and PM Modi. Information is collated from government websites and several publically available information on news sites and blogs. Please use comment section or contact form below to notify any updates or corrections. Thank You.