India is strategically located on the world’s shipping routes with a coastline of approximately 7,517 km. Maritime transport handles around 70% of India’s trading in value terms. To promote India's shipping and port industry, the government has also introduced various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for enterprises that develop, maintain and operate ports, inland waterways and shipbuilding in India.
The India Maritime Vision 2030 has identified over 150 initiatives to boost the Indian maritime sector.
The Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030 was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India in March 2021. It is drafted after significant consultation with over 350 public and private stakeholders comprising of ports, shipyards, inland waterways, trade bodies and associations, and legal experts. The vision serves as a blueprint to achieve an accelerated and coordinated development of India’s diverse maritime sector, comprehensively identifying over 150 initiatives covering all facets of the country’s maritime sector.
The facts include developing best-in-class port infrastructure, enhancing logistics efficiency through technology and innovation, increasing cargo and passenger movement through inland waterways, and leading the world in a safe, sustainable & green maritime sector.
Both Sagarmala and Maritime India Vision focus on unlocking additional potential such as annual revenue of INR 20,000 Cr. (US$2.7 Bn) from extant assets and generating employment, targeting 2 million direct and indirect jobs by 2030
The Government launched the ambitious Sagarmala Programme in March 2017, with the vision of port-led development and growth of logistics-intensive industries. Under Sagarmala Programme, $123 bn would be invested across 415 projects across the following identified components:
Port Modernization and New Port Development
Port Connectivity Enhancement
Port-Linked Industrialization
Coastal Community Development
India has 12 major and 200 non-major/intermediate ports (under state government administration). Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust is the largest major port in India, while Mudra is the largest private port. Moreover, India is one of the world's top 5 ship recycling countries and holds 30% share in the global ship recycling market.
By Financial Year 2018-19, 34 PPP projects with an investment of $3.05 bn involving capacity addition of 300 MTPA is under operation. Another, 13 PPP projects with an investment of $978.3 mn involving capacity addition of 140 MTPA is under implementation. Further, there are 20 captive projects with an investment of $713.8 mn involving capacity addition of 142.45 MTPA under operation and 7 captive projects with an investment of $930.5 mn involving capacity addition of 55 MTPA is under implementation.
The overall installed capacity of the major ports in India has increased over 76% to reach 1,534.91 MTPA in Mar 2020, vis-a-vis 871.52 MTPA in March 2014. Moreover, the total traffic handled by these major ports has reached to 704.92 MT during 2019-20. Cargo traffic in the country is expected to rise to 2,500 MT by 2024-25 from 1,072.23 MT in 2015-16. The major ports in India collectively handled 679.4 MT of cargo during 2017-18 compared to 648.4 MT a year ago; thereby registering a growth of 4.8%. During 2018-19, major and non-major ports in India handled a total cargo throughput of around 1,282 MT. The traffic grew by 6.13% in the Port industry of India over the corresponding period of the previous year.
118 maritime projects requiring $7.7 bn investment have been approved in the last four years
The cargo handling capacity of major ports reached 1534.91 MPTA in 2019-20