Maritime Summit nets Rs 83,000-cr investment proposals

The maiden Maritime Summit here has resulted in investment commitments of nearly Rs 83,000 crore (USD 13 billion) in the shipping, ports and allied sectors, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.
As many as 141 agreements entailing investment of Rs 82,900 crore was signed at the summit which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday.
Gadkari also said that for a five-year term, Shipping Ministry is targeting to get investments worth USD 60 billion for 240 projects for the success of the ambitious Sagarmala project of ports-led growth.
He singled out the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's announcement of entering into a pact with Shipping Ministry as one of the biggest achievements of the summit. The contract will ensure an order flow of nearly Rs 75,000 crore to the troubled private sector shipyards.

He said orders of Rs 50,000 crore will come on a nomination basis from the Cochin Shipyard, while another Rs 25,000 crore will come from other departments apart from the Defence Ministry orders.
"We will outsource work to private sector shipyards and help them financially. This will give them the oxygen for survival," Gadkari said.

The Sagarmala project will bring down the cost of logistics to 10 per cent from the present 18 per cent, thus making Indian goods competitive, Gadkari said.
Inaugurating the summit, Modi had said his government would mobilise Rs 1 trillion investment in the ports sector over the next decade and promised to personally handhold investors for a "safe, secure and satisfactory" berthing so as to transform the country's 7,500-km-long coastline as an "engine of growth".

Modi also said the government would work towards more than doubling the port capacity to 3 billion tonnes by 2025 and "wants to mobilise an investment of Rs 1 trillion in the ports sector to enable this growth.