Giving wings to India’s maritime goals

The Sagarmala Development Company (SDC) has been incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013, with an initial authorised share capital of `1,000 crore and a subscribed share capital of `90 crore.

Sanguine about the prospects of `1,000 the projects worth crore under Sagarmala programme, Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Shipping and Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, said that the company will play a major role in realising India’s maritime potential.

The main objective of the company is to identify port-led development projects under the Sagarmala programme and provide equity support for the project Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) set up by the ports/state/central ministries and funding window and/ or implement only those residual projects which cannot be funded by any other mode.

The Cabinet had approved the formation of the SDC under the administrative control of the Ministry of Shipping in July 2016. The company would help in structuring activities, bidding out projects for private sector participation, identifying suitable risk management measures for strategic projects across multiple states/regions and obtaining requisite approvals and clearances.

The implementation of the identified projects would be taken up by the relevant ports, state governments/maritime boards, central ministries, through private or PPP mode. The company would act as the nodal agency for coordination and monitoring of all the currently identified projects under Sagarmala as well as other projects emerging from the master plans or other sources.