High-level meet on port development on Monday

A high level committee will meet here on Monday to oversee "Sagarmala", a central government initiative to promote port-led development across the country, an official statement said.

The panel comprises the NITI Aayog vice chairman, union ministers from stakeholder ministries and chief ministers of 10 maritime states--Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

This will be the first meeting of National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) and Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will chair it.

"The broad agenda of meeting includes discussions on constitution and scope of NSAC, concept of Sagarmala and decisions of the central government relating to Sagarmala," the shipping ministry statement said.

Other matters such as action taken on setting up of Sagarmala Institutional Mechanism and engagement with maritime states will also be discussed.

Progress on the elements of Sagarmala programme, identification and implementation of projects, and critical role of state governments in project identification and implementation are also on the agenda.

Against a share of 9 percent of railways and 6 percent of roads in the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the share of ports is only 1 percent, according to official data.