LOGISTICALLY SPEAKING. Clear the regulatory mess before starting Sagar Mala

The Shipping Ministry’s move to revive the Sagar Mala project is, no doubt, a great initiative for port sector development.

However, the plan to widen its scope from building ports to creating, what the Ministry calls, the Maritime Economic Regions, could make the project overambitious and delay its execution. This is more so, given the regulatory mess in the port sector.

Sagar Mala, announced over a decade ago by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was aimed at developing a string of ports along the coastline with proper hinterland connectivity by road and rail.

In fact, it was conceived as a project to bring shipping — like other modes of transport — closer to common people. The then Shipping Secretary DT Joseph who was trying to spread the idea of creating a Maritime Constituency to make merchant shipping popular, was the one who turned Sagar Mala a workable project.

Unfortunately, before the project took off, the UPA came to power and it replaced the project with its own National Maritime Development Programme.

The NDA is now trying to make the project a grandiose one. The Prime Minister has been talking about a port-led growth model. Going by the Shipping Ministry’s plan, Sagar Mala could become the main plank for NDA’s development strategy for the coastal regions.

This was also evident at a meeting of stakeholders convened by the Shipping Ministry in Delhi last week. Sagar Mala is being projected as a project that can change not only the face of the Indian port sector but the country’s entire coastal regions. But the question is in its execution as pointed by a participant at the meeting. An innovative concept in the second version of Sagar Mala seems to be the Maritime Economic Regions or MERs. A concept note on the project says MERs will be developed around a cluster of ports and port-based industries.

They will have an integrated transport system to ensure smooth flow of cargo and passenger traffic. An apex body called the Sagar Mala Development Authority will be in charge of the project in the MERs. The plan appears to bring all new projects under the authority.

As a concept MERs sounds wonderful. But it requires massive groundwork even to lay the foundation. It calls for legislative changes. For example, currently the Major Ports and Non-Major ports are governed by separate legislations. Tariffs are regulated for the former but not for the latter. Regulatory issues are hurting the Major Ports’ performance. Projects are plagued by disputes and litigations. Besides, there are several agencies working in the transport sector and coordination among them is not an easy task.

Stakeholders of Sagar Mala have several questions. There are already economic zones and industrial corridors such as the DMIC.

How different will MERs be from these zones? Who will be in charge of MERs? Will the Sagar Mala Development Authority be vested with powers to decide as to what type of project each economic region should go in for?

No one doubts the intention of the promoters of Sagar Mala. But as some stakeholders pointed out, the Government should first clear the current regulatory mess in the port sector for Sagar Mala to set sail.

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