At least two smart cities are expected to come up in the Special Economic Zones in two major ports in the country in the coming five years. Under the ambitious Sagarmala project, Ministry of Shipping will build at least two smart cities in the SEZs in Kandla and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
"In the first phase, we plan to come up with at least two smart cities in ports of Kandla and JNPT, complete with affordable housing and other necessary infrastructure, wind and solar power generators for electricity generation," said Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Shipping, addressing reporters a day after the Cabinet gave an 'in-principle' nod to the project, aimed at port-led development in coastal States.
"We are confident that the Sagarmala project will bring down cost of export-import, boost coastal traffic, improve trade and will provide infrastructure by way of roads and rail to transfer goods from one port to another," he said.
Giving the example of high costs involved in transferring a shipment by road from Mumbai to Aurangabad vis-à-vis by ship from Mumbai to Delhi, Gadkari said, "Not only is mobility by road expensive and time consuming, but is also environment unfriendly and comes with an added risk of accidents."
The port-led development is expected to lift India's GDP growth by 2 per cent, Gadkari said. Terming the decision as "revolutionary" Gadkari said, "An allocation of Rs4,000 crore has been made for SEZ at JNPT. Our second SEZ is proposed at Kandla port, for which we have two lakh acres of land in its possession." Gadkari said a National Perspective Plan (NPP) for the coastline will be prepared within six months which will identify geographical regions to be created as SEZs.
"At present Indian ports handle more than 90 per cent of India's total EXIM trade volume but the current proportion of merchandise trade in GDP is only 42 per cent whereas in Germany and European Union, it is 75 per cent and 70 per cent respectively," he said.
The Cabinet also nodded the creation of a Special Purpose Vehicle by the Ministry of Shipping, which will be funded by 12 major ports and Rail Vikas Nigam limited. The SPV, which will improve the last mile connectivity to ports and modernise evacuation infrastructure will aim at reducing time and costs involved in cargo transfer. Gadkari further said that parliamentary nod is also being sought on the Bill to convert 101 rivers into National Waterways in the ongoing Budget Session.