Joint Secretary (Sagarmala), Ministry of Shipping, Kailash Kumar Aggarwal, on Tuesday said the Sagarmala project, the flagship initiative of the Central government, would help achieve Blue Economy – sustainable development of oceans and water body resources, and significant reduction in logistics cost.
He was speaking at the two-day conference on enhancing port and coastal infrastructure organised by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.
Mr. Aggarwal said port-led development and inland waterways were being encouraged to help save ₹35,000 crore per annum in terms of logistics cost and increase the share of water-borne transport with a freight modal mix from 6 to 12%.
Bright scope
He said the logistics cost at present in India was 12 to 16% compared to 8 to 10% in other countries. There was bright scope to develop the 7,500-km coastline and 14,500-km of navigational water.
Praising the success of port-led development and promotion of waterways in China, he said, now 47% of inter-modal transport of the world’s most populous country was through waterways.
Mr. Aggarwal said under Sagarmala, the government wanted to take up various projects, including revival of the Buckingham Canal from Kakinada to Villupuram in Tamil Nadu at a total cost of ₹8.5 lakh crore in 20 years.
He said under Sagarmala they had identified port modernisation, connectivity, industrialisation and coastal community development in a big way.
Sustainable projects
AIIB Director-General (Investment Operations) Yee Ean Pang said the bank floated in January 2016 by 57 share-holders had so far received $20 billion out of $100 billion promised by the member-countries.
He said their focus was on funding sustainable development projects such as clean supplies, transportation, low carbon power, and urban infrastructure, and called for bigger role for the private sector in funding infrastructure projects. He said the AIIB-approved projects were being co-funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Amitabh Kundu, distinguished Fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), presided.
CII-AP former chairman G.S. Shiv Kumar, Director (Multilateral Institutions), Ministry of Finance, Shakil Alam, and former Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Vishwapati Trivedi, spoke.
