#NDA #Govt  plans to set up five new major #Ports :  Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Shipping ,

In a bid to have a strong port-led development in India, the Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari today announced that the government is planning to develop five new major ports to improve trade and transport along the 7,500 km coastline.

India currently has 12 major ports and three more are being developed, one each in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The total cost of these three upcoming ports is about Rs 25,000 crore.

“We will give more details about the five planned ports over the next three days,” said Gadkari.

He was speaking at the curtain raiser event held here today ahead of the three-day Maritime India Summit 2016 event starting from April 14.

The event, to be held in Mumbai, is expected to see signing of deals worth Rs 82,900 crore. It will comprise 86 memorandum of understanding worth Rs 68,700 crore and 35 concession orders worth Rs 5,900 crore among other deals.

About 3,000 delegates are expected at the event, which will also have 12 cabinet ministers along with chief ministers of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Goa.

The event, which will be laying strong focus on the ambitious Sagarmala project of the government, will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Sagarmala project envisaged by the government is expected to see investment worth Rs 12 lakh crore in coming years with employment generation expected to be of about one crore.

Separately, the shipping ministry today has signed an MoU with South Korea for co-operation in port related matters.

South Korea is also the partner for the event.