Karnataka to release its maritime policy to develop port sector shortly

Karnataka Maritime Policy will be released soon said Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Infrastructure Development, Ports and Inland Water Transport during the inaugural session of the first edition of Karnataka Ports Conference – 2023 in Mangaluru

The State government should release Karnataka Maritime Policy shortly, Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Infrastructure Development, Ports and Inland Water Transport said on July 14.

Speaking virtually from Bengaluru during the inaugural session of the first edition of Karnataka Ports Conference – 2023 organised by the Karnataka chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here he said: “Karnataka Maritime Policy has been formulated with a vision to develop the ports sector and that should be released very shortly.”

Speaking of the Karnataka Maritime Board, he said that 26 maritime improvement projects have been sanctioned to the State under the Sagarmala programme of the Union government. The government intends to develop Keni and Belikeri ports in Uttara Kannada to increase their handling capacity by another 30 million tonnes per annum.

The theme of the conference was ‘Ports – Backbone of Indian Economy and Atmanirbhar Bharat.’

Underlining the importance of ports Venkata Ramana Akkaraju, Chairman, New Mangalore Port Authority (NMPA) said that the customs department earned ₹5,190 crores of annual revenue from NMPA alone. The NMPA created employment opportunities, both direct and indirect, to 10,000 people. Of them, 3,500 persons are contract employees of the port while 350 persons are regular employees. Others are indirect beneficiaries of port activities.

Referring to cruise tourism, he said the port is handing cruise vessels at negligible cost and eight cruise vessels called at the port in the last cruise season. The amount spent by the tourists who go on land tour after embarking from the ship contributes to the local economy.