Sagarmala Programme Completes 7 Years.

Why in news?

• Launched in 2015, Sagarmala programme is the flagship programme of Ministry of Shipping to promote port-led development through harnessing India’s 7,500 km long coastline, 14500 km of potentially navigable waterways and strategic location on key international maritime trade routes.
• Its core vision is to reduce the logistics cost for exports, imports and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment.

Achievements and initiatives:

• Quality service delivery has reduced Turnaround Time (containers) at Ports to 26.58 hours from 44.70 hours in 2013-14.
• Current cargo handling capacity of Indian ports improved to 1,500 Million Tonnes Per Year (MMTPA) from 1,052 MMTPA in FY2014-15.
• Improved ports’ efficiency and Ease of Doing Business through Creating Smart Ports (Logistics Data Bank Service; RFID Solutions etc); Digitization in Services; Smooth Data Flow etc.
• Port-led industrialization to boost industrial and export growth along the coastline to be realized through 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs).
• Skilling of Coastal population: Under Deen Dayal Upadhyay- Grameen Kaushalya Yojna Sagarmala Convergence Programme, more than 1900 candidates trained.
• More than one crore employment opportunities to be created.