Sunday, October 5, 2014

Shipping ministry to revive Vajpayee’s Sagar Mala project

Chennai:

The concept of Sagar Mala project which will not only connect the
ports with the hinterland through road and rail but also develop the
Inland and coastal waterways as a major transport routes is set to be
finalized.

 “Sagar Mala” was an initiative that 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 modernization of
ports along India’s East and West Coast, the Shipping Ministry said.

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.

A concept note prepared by the Shipping Ministry has perceived Sagar
Mala as an integrated infrastructure cum policy project to develop the
Indian Maritime sector.

The concept paper has proposed that the growth of India’s maritime
sector be achieved by developing Maritime Economic Regions (MER).

The draft concept note has suggested that an MER would be a Regional
Ports System comprising of a cluster of major ports and non-major
ports and the development of an MER would involve development of
ports, port based SEZs, coastal industrial clusters and other port
based industries.

The MER envisages that it would be linked with road, inland waterways
transport and airport projects to have the best connectivity.

A brain storming session under the Shipping Secretary Vishwapati
Trivedi was held on Tuesday. Forty-five stakeholders representing
ministry of railways, surface transport and highways, planning
commission, customs, major and minor ports, state maritime boards and
various other organizations participated.

The focus was on initiatives to be taken for port-led development
besides policy framework to promote coastal Shipping and Inland water
transport and institutional framework for implementation of the
Sagarmala project.

No comments:

Post a Comment