For what reasons should India improve its maritime infrastructure and build robust maritime strategy? What initiatives have been taken in this regard? Examine. (200 Words)
Why we need maritime infrastructure?
- Transport through seas are the cheapest and most efficient mode of transport.
- There is need to deepen ports, provide constant dredging and maintenance in eastern ports for docking of large ships which will save time, energy and money.
- Building warehouses, logistics, support infrastructure ,trained staff and container terminals for handling cargo and freight will improve our turnover time and ease of doing business
- The proposal of corporatisation of ports will infuse professionalism, transparency and sense of urgency in the management of major ports
Why we need a maritime strategy?
- Increased forays by other nations like CHINA in the Indian ocean and littoral nations undermining our hitherto unhindered influence in the region
- CHINA’S OBOR initiative and string of pearls theory to encircle India
- Continued threat of piracy, disasters, tsunamis in the region
- Huge reserves of mineral rich seabed in the region can lead to conflicts over its control in future.
- Terrorist attacks like 26/11
- Porous coastal regions which leads to smuggling and drug peddling
- Critical installations like nuclear projects along coast
- Current developments like USA’s Pivot to Asia; string of Pearls; Russia coming close to Indian Ocean by signing Gas pipelines agreements with China and Pakistan; Pakistan arrests our fishermen
Recent Initiatives:
- PROJECT SAGARMALA to enable modernization of port infrastructure ,multimodal transport, efficient evacuation, optimum split among others
- Project MAUSAM linking our cultural linkages across west asia, north africa and maritime nations
- Proposal to build base in strategic andamans, pact with seychelles for maritme collaboration, logistic agreement with USA, LOOK WEST MARITIME DIPLOMACY and vision of blue water navy are other notable initiatives in this regard
- Coastal Police stations
- National Automatic Identification System
- National Command Communication Control and Intelligence Network
- Bilateral ties with Maldives, Seychelles and Sri Lanka