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The Gujarat Assembly on Friday approved a proposal to set up Maritime University under the Gujarat Private Universities Act, 2009 thereby paving the way for sector-specific education, training and research. The total project cost is estimated at Rs 800 crore.
The State Assembly, on its last day of the ongoing Budget session, passed the Gujarat Maritime University bill under Gujarat Private Universities Act, 2009.
The University is aimed at addressing the need of the skilled and qualified manpower in the commercial areas of maritime sector.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani stated, "We are envisioning development of a world class maritime university to cater to the growing needs for providing skilled manpower as well as to promote research and innovation in the ports and maritime sector."
The new university campus is likely to come up near Ahmedabad or Gandhinagar on an area of 100 acres.
The State, having a coastline of over 1,600 kilometres, handles approx 40 per cent of the total seaborne national cargo with only 3 to 4 institutes offering maritime education, of which majority offers technical education with total intake capacity of approximately 280.
Conceptualized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the State Chief Minister, the Maritime University project was accorded in-principle approval in July 2014. Based on the recommendations of Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), the state maritime regulator, the final approval to kickstart the project was given on March 1, 2017. The Letter of Intent was issued on March 20, 2017.
GMB has initiated the process of identification and allocation of land for setting up the university campus.
A study conducted at the time of planning the Gujarat Maritime University revealed that existing maritime university - Indian Maritime University (IMU) at Chennai was not able to capture the huge demand for training in the shipping and maritime sector.
Ajay Bhadoo, Vice Chairman and CEO, GMB, said, “A secondary research done by us shows that the focus of IMU has been predominantly on technical courses. Our focus during the initial years would be on the commercial aspects."
In the two-phase plan for the rollout of the University, first phase will have programmes focusing on post-graduate courses covering commercial aspects of the maritime industry, such as logistics, law, maritime management, shipping trade and finance. Also, a programme for working professionals will also be introduced.
In the second phase, the University will look to offer under-pressure programmes on technical faculty development will be launched.
It is estimated that the University would have about 1,000 students by end of Phase 1 and about 5000 students by end of Phase 2.
The total funding requirement for Phase 1 of the University is around Rs 275 crore.
The total project cost is expected to be over Rs 800 crore.
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