The first state-level consultation meet on the Central Government's ambitious Sagarmala Project was held at Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) in Gandhinagar on Wednesday.
As a part of the day-long workshop, the senior officials from the Government of India signed a memorandum of understanding with GMB to utilise their knowledge and expertise in the development of the ports sector.
Gujarat was chosen as the first destination to hold such a workshop as the state is considered as a torch-bearer in the port and port-led development and the learning of Gujarat would be vital for the success of this initiative elsewhere in the country, a statement informed here.
Chaired by Dr. A. K. Srivastava, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, the meeting was attended by about 55 officials from various state government departments like home, tourism, road and building, industries, railways, coastguard besides the representatives from private port operators, trade associations, logistics players, freight forwarders, universities, training institutes and port ancillary industries. Top officials of Government of India and consulting firm McKinsey and AECOM discussed the Sagarmala Project.
It was announced that only priority projects would be funded from equity to be put by the Sagarmala Company that would be formed within a few coming months. The development of the identified and shortlisted projects would be undertaken on the various PPP models to the extent possible.
But for the skill development projects in the coastal region, Government of India would fund upto 100 per cent of the project cost. Interestingly, this will open the doors for Gujarat’s next generation projects like Maritime University and Maritime Clusters, which fall under this category.
The vice chairman and CEO of GMB, A K Rakesh, explained how Gujarat has over the years laid down the necessary policy framework for effective port led development in the state.
GMB also laid out various projects along the state coastline that could form a part of the Sagarmala initiative such as maritime cluster, bunkering terminal, maritime university, rail connectivity and coastal shipping.
The project is expected to focus on coastal area development, integrated planning of port regions, rail-road connectivity, tourism, fisheries, island development and skill building in coastal region. Since many of these areas are State subjects, a close tie-up of centre and state is proposed for the successful implementation of this project.