Maritime India Summit: PM Modi unveils plans for transforming India’s ports

With his soaring ambition to make the country’s coastline an engine of growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pitched for Rs 1 lakh crore (around $15 billion) investments for development of ports. Inaugurating the Maritime India Summit on April 14, Mr Modi said: “Our vision is to increase port capacity from 1,400 million tonnes to 3,000 million tonnes by 2025. We want to mobilise an investment of Rs. 1 lakh crore in the port sector to enable this growth.”

India, which seeks to take advantage of its coastline and geographical positioning the region, will focus on upgrading and indigenizing its ship building infrastructure and capacity. South Korea has been roped in as the partner country for the ‘Maritime India summit’. Unveiling his long-term plans for India’s maritime ambitions, Mr Modi said that India plans to add five new ports to meet increasing demand of trade, which is expected to rise in line with the fast-growing Indian economy. Several new ports are being developed by the coastal states in India, he added.

“We have taken several reforms to make India a global manufacturing hub. Moody has appreciated the Make in India initiative,” Mr Modi said. In a tribute to B.R Amdedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution on his 125th birth anniversary, PM Modi said that the architect of India’s Constitution was also the architect of the country’s water and river navigation policy.

Speaking about the potential in the maritime domain, Mr Modi said: “With more than 14,000 kilometers of navigable inland waterways in the country, there is tremendous potential for development in this sector.”

(Sridhar Ramaswamy contributed inputs for this article)

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