India is set to double its ports capacity to 3000 million tonnes (MT) by 2025, the Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said.
The capacity of ports stood at 1,500 MT in 2015. He also said that an investment of Rs 60,000 crore will be made in the port sector by May 26 this year.
"We will double the capacity of our ports to 3000 MTPA by 2025," he said.
Since the government came to power, India has started focusing a lot on the port sector and by 26 May, contracts worth Rs.60,000 crore would be awarded in the shipping and ports sector, Gadkari said.
At least ten million jobs – 4 million lakh directly and 6 million indirectly – will be created under the government’s ambitious Sagarmala project in the next four to five years, informed Nitin Gadkari.
Gadkari said that under the ambitious project Sagarmala, the country's 7,500km-long seashore's harbours will be developed. Gadkari said, the project which will have an investment of 400 lakh crore, will provide direct employment to 40,000 people. He said that through the medium of this project, 27 new industrial clusters will come up.
Besides, industrial clusters will be created along the coast and fisheries promoted. He said a Port Rail Connectivity Corp. had been created with the responsibility of connecting industrial hubs to various ports by rail lines.
Meanwhile, India’s ports sector continued its financial recovery in fiscal 2015-16 after its 12 major state-owned ports, known as major ports, booked an increase in operating profit of 19 percent.
The country's 12 public port trusts registered a combined operating profit of Rs. 4,268 crore ($641.5 million) in the year ended March 31, an increase of Rs. 670 crore on the previous year.