Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal will chair the meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) on Friday at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.
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 May 13, 2015, by the Union Cabinet and is chaired by the Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways with Cabinet Ministers from stakeholder central Ministries and Chief Ministers & Administrators of Maritime States and Union territories respectively as members.
Ministry for Ports, Shipping and Waterways said in a statement this meeting will be attended by Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashwini Vaishnav, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Bhupender Yadav, G Kishan Reddy, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shantanu Thakur.
"The committee shall review the Sagarmala program along with a review of the development of port linked Road and Rail connectivity project, development of Floating jetties and Inland waterways besides other agenda items," Ministry said in a statement.
It further said that the 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 costs for both domestic and EXIM cargo with optimal infrastructure investment.
The projects under the scheme have been categorized into five pillars: Port modernization and new port development, Port connectivity enhancement, Port-led industrialization, Coastal community development and 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 an investment of Rs 5.48 lakh crore.
The 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 into 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," it said.
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 to ensuring timely completion of implementing projects and incorporating new projects for maritime development through the PM GatiShakti initiative.
( With inputs from ANI )
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