Parliamentary committee castigates centre over slow progress of Sagarmala project

The Parliamentary Committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP TG Venkatesh in its 327 report said that ever since the project was approved in 2015, only 25 percent of the total project under Sagarmala is completed as of date.

New Delhi: A Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture has castigated the Central government for the slow progress of the much-hyped Sagarmala project. The Parliamentary Committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP TG Venkatesh in its 327 report said that ever since the project was approved in 2015, only 25 percent of the total project is completed as of date.

The committee further noted that Sagarmala Development Company Limited (SDCL) was incorporated on August 31, 2016, for the implementation of Sagarmala, and out of the total 802 projects, only 202 projects have been completed so far. "216 projects are under implementation, while 384 are under various stages of development," the committee said.

The committee expressed serious concerns at the slow progress of work and recommended that Sagarmala, being a crucial step in the progress of India's shipping sector which seeks to bring about port connectivity, needs to be expedited. Sagarmala, a national programmme, aims at accelerating economic development in the country by harnessing the potential of India's 7,500 km long coastline and 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways.

Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, the Sagarmala project was approved by the Union Cabinet on March 25, 2015. The vision of Sagarmala is to reduce logistics costs for both domestic and EXIM cargo with minimal infrastructure investment. Studies under Sagarmala have identified opportunities for reducing overall logistics costs, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the economy and increasing the competitiveness of exports.

Presently, there are 802 projects worth investment of Rs 5.48 lakh crores for implementation under the programme. Out of these, 201 projects worth Rs 99,281 crore have been completed and 216 projects worth Rs 2.12 crore are under implementation. Further, 384 projects worth Rs 2.3 lakh crore are under various stages of implementation.

In addition to this, 735 projects with an estimated investment of Rs 1 lakh crore have been identified for carrying out holistic development of coastal districts. Every year, hundreds of billions of rupees worth of products move through ports that generate substantial business activity through their operations. The committee notes that India's major ports are an important part of India's economy and transportation system.

Over 95 percent of India's trading by volume and 65 percent by value is done through maritime transport. In addition to their impact on the national economy, ports also have an impact on the local and regional economies of the states in which the ports are situated. The committee is of the opinion that a substantial portion of business activity in a variety of industries is driven by international trade, and the value of foreign trade has risen substantially over the years.

"Although trade volumes are affected by global economic conditions and gave decreased slightly over the past few years due to Covid 19 pandemic, trade volumes are expected to rise in the future, increasing the importance of ports and waterways in terms of exports and imports," the Parliamentary committee said.

The committee further observed that with the increase in port capacity to handle heavier cargo volumes and bigger size of container vessels in the future, there will be a need for the development of modern terminal development, which will also challenge the ability of terminals to handle increasing cargo volumes.

"In spite of the fact that the government has taken up a larger number of projects to remove the bottlenecks in road and rail connectivity to ports, more coordinated efforts are required to complete the connectivity projects by involving railway authorities, as well as NHAI among others," the committee said in its report.