Sarbananda Sonowal to chair meeting of National Sagarmala Apex Committee

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shri Sarbananda Sonowal will chair the meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC)  on Friday, 6th May, 2022 at Vigyan Bhawan, in New Delhi . The National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) is the apex body providing policy directions and guidance for port led development-Sagarmala projects and reviews its implementation. The NSAC was constituted on 13.05.2015 by the Union Cabinet and is chaired by Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways with Cabinet Ministers from stakeholder central Ministries and Chief Ministers & Administrators of Maritime States and Union territories respectively as members. This meeting   will be attended by Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Skill development and entrepreneurship, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of civil aviation, Shri Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister of Railways, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekawat Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri. Bhupender Yadav, Minister of environment, forest and climate change , Shri G Kishan Reddy, Minister of Tourism ,Shri Pramod Sawant , Chief Minister of Goa ,Shri Shantanu Thakur, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

The committee shall review the Sagarmala program along with review of development of port linked Road and Rail connectivity project, development of Floating jetties and Inland waterways besides other agenda items. Holistic development of coastal communities through a new initiative ‘Sagartat Samriddhi Yojana’ will also be taken up for discussion in the meeting. In its previous two meetings, NSAC has provided the necessary platform and thrust for the Sagarmala initiative, this meeting will analyse the progress on various decisions taken during those meetings.

Sagarmala is a National Programme aimed at accelerating economic development in the country by harnessing the potential of India’s 7,500 km long coastline and 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways announced by the  Prime Minister in 2014 and approved by the Union Cabinet on 25th March 2015. It holds a vision to reduce logistics cost for both domestic and EXIM cargo with optimal infrastructure investment.  The projects under the scheme have been categorized into five pillars:

1. Port modernization & new port development,
2. Port connectivity enhancement,
3. Port-led industrialization,
4. Coastal community development and
5. Coastal shipping and Inland water transport

Projects under Sagarmala are being implemented by relevant Major Ports, Central Ministries, State Maritime Boards, State Governments and other agencies. Sagarmala program was conceptualized in 2015-16 with 175 projects which increased over the years, in consultation with states and major ports, to 802 projects currently worth investment of Rs.5.48 lakh Crore. Addition of new projects in sagarmala is a continuous process in the ministry wherein states and implementing agencies progressively submit their new proposals which are taken for consideration for funding as per their requirement. Out of the total 802 projects, currently 202 projects worth Rs. 99,281 Crore have been completed, 216 projects worth Rs. 2.12 lakh Crore are under implementation and 384 projects worth Rs. 2.37 Lakh Crore are under various stages of development.

This Apex committee meeting is expected to propel the Sagarmala Project implementation to further heights at a time when the Prime Minister is giving focused attention in ensuring timely completion of implementing projects and incorporating new projects for maritime development through PM GatiShakti initiative.