India sets out maritime strategy

Last week’s Maritime India Summit saw the launch of India’s National Perspective Plan (NPP) featuring proposals for six to eight new ports, over 40 port-capacity enhancement projects and more than 80 port connectivity projects amongst others.

Aiming to reduce trade costs, Sagarmala, the government’s program to promote port-led development hopes to produce annual logistics cost savings of close to INR 35,000 crore (US$5.3bn) and boost India’s merchandise exports to US$110bn by 2025.

Infrastructure investment of INR 4 lakh crore (US$60bn) is envisaged over 2015–25 including capital expenditure of INR 35,000 crore (US$5.3bn) in existing ports and INR 30,000 crore (US$4.5bn) in new ports.