Maritime clusters & CEZ proposed in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat

100-acre land identified for cluster development in Tamil Nadu

A draft report on port-led-industrial development of the coastal economic clusters has identified two major maritime clusters in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat similar to the global success stories in Japan and South Korea.

The was prepared under Sagarmala Programme of the Ministry of Shipping and it has identified port-led-industrial development of the coastal economic clusters identifies two major maritime clusters in Tamil Nadu & Gujarat similar to the global success stories in Japan and South Korea.

"With the given potential, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu can emerge as major maritime clusters for India with scope of developing various components of the maritime cluster like ship building & ancillary services, maritime services, promoting maritime tourism and marine products," said in the report.

In Gujarat, the potential marine cluster could leverage the existing ecosystem and steel supplies from Hazira. It can also utilise existing shipyards at Pipavav, Dahej & Hazira ports and ship breaking yard at Alang.

The cluster will consist of existing shipyards, ancillary cluster at Bhavnagar with retail and leisure components, services cluster in Ahmedabad / Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) and existing fish landing centres as identified by the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB).

The maritime cluster in Tamil Nadu is proposed to be developed near Chennai due to enabling conditions like existing shipyards, major ports, steel cluster, automotive and engineering industry, universities and colleges.

A 100-acre land parcel owned by Kamrajar Port Limited has been identified for cluster development in Tamil Nadu. This site is also in proximity to Kattupalli Port and shipyard.

"Given the manufacturing strength, size of the ports with high traffic and synergies with other steel ancillaries, both the identified locations for maritime clusters can provide positive synergistic effect by attracting business for the maritime industry and improving the economics for the cluster participants," according to a release.

The report suggested14 CEZs proposed along the maritime states and industrial clusters under Sagarmala, which can reduce logistics costs, thus, enabling Indian trade to be more competitive globally.

According to the report, India currently accounts for only 0.45 per cent of the global shipbuilding market and could target 3-4 mn DWT of the global shipbuilding capacity by 2025. With the recent policies & initiatives by the Government of India, the unfavorable cost differential faced by the Indian shipyards is expected to reduce. Subsequently, opportunity in defence sector, growth in coastal shipping and replacement of existing vessel fleet is expected to drive growth of the shipbuilding industry in India.

The report also states that India can target to achieve a 0.2 per cent share of maritime services in overall GDP by 2025. Given an expected GDP of $6 trillion in India by 2025, and a services share of 50 per cent, the maritime services industry is expected to be worth around $6 billion by 2025. Even the Rs 5,000 crore worth ancillaries market for maritime cluster can prove to be a huge opportunity for the Indian economy with engineering, fabrication and machining offering the greatest potential by 2025.