Idle Port Capacity Forces a Sagarmala Rethink

Company to shift focus from new projects to port-led industrialisation.

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Sagarmala Development Company Ltd (SDCL) wants to shift its focus to port-led industrialisation rather than looking at new projects.

“With infrastructure lying idle at ports, it has been decided not to look at projects that add more capacity. The focus is more on port-led industrialisation, which in turn will get cargo to the ports,” according to a senior official of the three-year-old SDCL, which assists Central/State/ port level/private sector Special Purpose Vehicles with equity support for projects that they undertake.

While the government had in the past acted fast to create port capacity, utilisation has been quite low, said Dilip Kumar Gupta, Managing Director of SDCL, a $110-billion coordinated effort across over 60 agencies for over 600 identified projects.

The potential logistics cost savings identified were ₹35,000-40,000 crore a year by 2025 under the Sagarmala programme, he added.