India government will speed up the ambitious Sagarmala project from 10 years to five years, said Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping.
“Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention, it has been decided to finish Sagarmala project in five years instead of 10 years to create a massive 10 million jobs,” he said.
Sagarmala project, aimed at promoting port-led development in India, could lead to annual logistics cost savings of Rs 35,000 crore and boost India’s merchandise exports to $110 billion by 2025.
The project will bring down India’s logistics cost from 18 percent to 10 percent, resulting an equal competition with China’s prices, he said.
The minister said: “This plan is based on four strategic levers: Optimising multi-modal transport to reduce the cost of domestic cargo, minimising the time and cost of export-import cargo logistics, lowering costs for bulk industries by locating them closer to the coast and improving export competitiveness by locating discrete manufacturing clusters near ports.”
Sagarmala aims to deliver impact through over 150 projects and initiatives in the modernisation of existing ports and setting of six new ports to augment capacity. It will focus on port connectivity through heavy haul rail corridor, freight friendly expressways, and development of strategic inland waterways.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that he is glad that this project will give employment to 1 crore skilled as well as unskilled people. He further stated that they will try to complete the project as soon as possible.