The Centre has taken a number of initiatives to further strengthen ports and shipping and thereby make India competitive.The national perspective plan, released by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Maritime India Summit, aims to promote port-led development by harnessing the 7,500-km coastline, 111 waterways of 14,500 km. At least 150 projects have been identified — infrastructure development (Rs 4 lakh crore), industrial investment (power, steel, manufacturing, Rs 8 lakh crore), augmentation of coastal shipping and inland waterways to cut logistic cost (Rs 35,000-40,000 crore). The reduction in logistics cost will boost both domestic and external trade. “We have taken up skill development activities aggressively,” the Prime Minister said.
The Sagarmala project expects to create 10 million jobs. It has been conceived to address the challenges and capture all the opportunities of port-led development. Union Minister of ports and shipping, Nitin Gadkari said that the challenges still exist in closing the demand and supply gap. There is need is for fresh skilling and also for up-skilling and re-skilling the existing labour force. The government will promote skill training and livelihood generation programmes in coastal districts and provide access to training facilities of major ports for third-party skill development programmes.
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