Chennai: Though Tamil Nadu appears to have received the least allocation for development under the Sagarmala - a pet project of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government compared to Gujarat and Maharashtra, the state stands to gain as it would soon get six industrial clusters close to the ports.
Refining & petrochemical cluster apart, TN would get power cluster for Central TN, steel cluster, maritime cluster, cement and discrete manufacturing cluster under the Sagarmala project. The Union Shipping and road transport & Highways Ministry has allotted projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore under the Sagarmala programme and these are at various stages of implementation.
Efforts are to develop Master Plans for the 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) in a phased manner and besides Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu has been included in phase I. According to sources steps have been initiated to prepare DPRs for maritime cluster in the State.
For the port-led industrialisation alone the Centre has identified 33 projects for Rs 4.2 lakh crore and the perspective plans have been prepared for 14 CEZs. The shipping ministry has proposed to develop free trade warehousing zone at Ennore. The projects, according to sources will be implemented under the PPP mode by the Centre, State, Ports and agencies.
The proposed port-led development is expected to not only reduce logistics costs by optimising movement of cargo but also impact competitiveness in availability or raw materials, skills, supporting infrastructure and existing industrial agglomeration.
While the industrial clusters will enjoy the benefit of lower cost of movement by waterways, the energy cluster proposed for Poompuhar will meet the future power requirements of the country. The refining cluster in proposed for Mannar CEZ or in Poompuhar CEZ in Tamil Nadu.
Furthermore, steel and cement clusters will help increase production by 40 MTPA each by 2025 by creating coastal capacity and thus reduce logistic cost by Rs 1,000 per ton and make domestic manufacturing more competitive, it is said.
