“In the shipping sector, work worth Rs.40,000 crore has already started, and before May 26, we will award contracts worth Rs.60,000 crore”.

The Centre will sanction contracts worth Rs.60,000 crore to modernise ports by May 26, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday.

“In the shipping sector, work worth Rs.40,000 crore has already started, and before May 26, we will award contracts worth Rs.60,000 crore,” he said after the second meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee here. Modernisation, mechanisation and computerisation of the ports will be undertaken. Since the NDA came to power two years ago, investment worth Rs.83,361 crore had come to the port sector, the Minister said.

The ‘Sagarmala’ project, aimed at promoting port-led development along India’s 7,500 km coast, has been finalised with the views of all stakeholders present at the meeting. “We will soon submit the plan to the Prime Minister who will launch the ‘Sagarmala’ at the Maritime India Summit [to be held between April 14 and 16],” Mr. Gadkari said. The government was hopeful of investments worth Rs.4 lakh crore and one crore jobs under the project.

The capacity of 12 major ports increased by 4.3 per cent, when global trade had gone up by just 0.5 per cent. “The improvement in efficiency in ports has lowered the logistics costs leading to a benefit of Rs.400-500 crore to the Indian trade,” Mr. Gadkari said. But compared with China and European countries, the logistics costs in India were higher.