Stop expansion work on commercial Karwar port: HC

News:Recently,the Karnataka High Court has directed the State government to stop all the developmental activities being undertaken at Karwar port under the Sagarmala project.

Facts:

About Karwar port:

• Karwar port is situated at the Southern side of the Kali River in the state of Karnataka.
• This port has been developed as an all weather port in the Karwar bay.
• The port, which is operated by the Government of Karnataka services the hinterland of northern Karnataka, Goa and southern Maharashtra.

About Sagarmala project:

• Sagarmala project was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2015.The initiative aims to promote Port-led development along India’s 7500 km long coastline.
• The Union Ministry of Shipping has been appointed as the nodal ministry for this project.

Objectives of the project:

• Reducing cost of transporting domestic cargo through optimizing modal mix
• Lowering logistics cost of bulk commodities by locating future industrial capacities near the coast
• Improving export competitiveness by developing port proximate discrete manufacturing clusters
• Optimizing time/cost of EXIM container movement.

Components of the project:

• Port Modernization & New Port Development: De-bottlenecking and capacity expansion of existing ports and development of new greenfield ports
• Port Connectivity Enhancement: Enhancing the connectivity of the ports to the hinterland, optimizing cost and time of cargo movement through multi-modal logistics solutions including domestic waterways (inland water transport and coastal shipping)
• Port-linked Industrialization: Developing port-proximate industrial clusters and Coastal Economic Zones to reduce logistics cost and time of EXIM and domestic cargo
• Coastal Community Development: Promoting sustainable development of coastal communities through skill development & livelihood generation activities, fisheries development, coastal tourism etc.
• Coastal Shipping & Inland Waterways Transport: Impetus to move cargo through the sustainable and environment-friendly coastal and inland waterways mode.