Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday said the country intends to be amongst the top five ship-building nations in the world by 2047.
Sonowal, while addressing the press at the inaugural day of the India Maritime Week 2025 here, said under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the support of the people of the country, and the collaboration of the global players, the country’s maritime sector is marching ahead with several new success stories.
He said global leaders in the shipping line have expressed confidence in the country’s capacity and capability, which is very important.
The minister said that several reforms have been done in the sector during the past 11 years, whereas the same sector was not taken seriously earlier.
He has said that the capacity of the major ports had been doubled and there has been a drastic increase in the amount of cargo when it comes to India’s waterways.
Sonowal has also said that the focus is on becoming self-reliant in ship building, so that the sector does not have to pay huge amounts of money abroad for the related services.
According to the minister, the aim is to have indigenous ship building, repair, recycling and other related activities, which will make the nation self-reliant in the field.
Throwing light on the conclave, he said that it is a global platform with more than 85 countries participating, under the theme “Uniting Oceans, One Maritime Vision,” reflecting the country’s ancient ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – the world is one family.
He has expressed hope that the initiative will unlock immense investments, boost development and create new jobs for our youth.
According to the ministry, there will be a total of 680 MoU’s signed translating into investments of Rs 10 lakh crore across different parts of the sector such as modernization, mechanization of ports, ship building clusters, repairs and several other areas.
All these MOUs are distributed across different sectors of the maritime economy and will lead to creation of a large number of jobs directly and indirectly.
As per the minister, the ecosystem of capacity building that has been created in the past decade has been able to create a quality workforce and has resulted in improving the maritime journey of the country.