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In March 2015, the Government of India (GOI) launched the Sagarmala Programme, a strategic and holistic port development initiative, anchored in five key pillars: port modernisation and new port development; enhancing port connectivity; port-led industrialisation; coastal community development; and coastal shipping and inland waterways transport. The programme's core objective was to leverage India's extensive 7,500-kilometre coastline and 14,500-kilometre network of navigable waterways to fundamentally restructure the nation's logistics ecosystem, reduce costs, decrease cargo transit times, and create a paradigm shift from inland-focused to coast-led development. 2025 marks a decade since the project's inception, and thus needs to be assessed on its impact on India's trade connectivity and the extent to which its foundational goals are being realised.
In the contemporary globalised economy, a country’s economic competitiveness and its integration into international value chains are determined by the efficiency of its trade and connectivity infrastructure. The capacity to move goods swiftly, reliably, and cost-effectively from production centres to international markets is not merely a logistical advantage but a foundational pillar of sustainable economic growth. Nations with advanced port infrastructure, streamlined customs procedures, and integrated multi-modal transport networks consistently outperform their peers, attracting greater foreign direct investment and fostering more resilient supply chains. For emerging economies, overcoming infrastructural deficits to enhance this connectivity is therefore a strategic imperative for unlocking their full trade potential and elevating their position in the global economic hierarchy.
Disproportionately high logistics costs have long strained India’s economic prosperity. For years, these costs have hovered around 13-14 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), starkly higher than the 7-8 percent benchmark seen in most developed economies and the 9-10 percent in other major emerging markets. A documented reliance on overburdened road networks, untapped maritime and fluvial transport, and suboptimal port turnaround times resulted in significant logistical bottlenecks and inflated operational costs for businesses. This has acted as a persistent barrier to trade growth, eroding the price competitiveness of Indian exports, inflating the cost of essential imports, and creating inefficiencies that ripple throughout the domestic economy.
The Sagarmala Programme was launched to create a port-led seamless, cost-effective, and deeply integrated national logistics network. Its vision is to connect the entire trade ecosystem—from the factory gate and the farm to the port terminal and the global shipping lane—into a cohesive, predictive, and efficient value chain. The programme's synergy with recent overarching frameworks like the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (PM-GSNMP) underscores this systemic intent to eliminate the logistical frictions that have historically impeded India's trade performance.
The Sagarmala Programme was launched to create a port-led seamless, cost-effective, and deeply integrated national logistics network.
The Sagarmala Programme’s broad mandate of modernising India’s maritime sector and transforming the coastline into a catalyst for economic growth can be deconstructed into three dimensions: Hinterland Connectivity, Maritime and Coastal Connectivity, and Digital Connectivity. A quantitative snapshot of the decade reveals significant progress in building the physical “hardware” of connectivity:
The decadal impact of the Sagarmala Programme on India's trade connectivity is not a monolith; it is a complex narrative of variable progress across different, interdependent dimensions. To gauge its true effect, it is essential to dissect the programme's performance in linking the arteries (hinterland), leveraging the blue highways (coastal and maritime), and building the digital nervous system of trade.
The foundational premise of Sagarmala is that ports are only as efficient as their inland connections. Over the past decade, concerted efforts have been made to bridge the historic “last-mile” gap. However, progress in hinterland connectivity often demonstrates a “shifting of the bottleneck” rather than its removal. The creation of a new six-lane highway near a port gate that has inefficient internal circulation creates a new point of congestion. Similarly, a high-speed Dedicated Freight Corridor can only be efficient if the port's rail yard and handling infrastructure can absorb the increased throughput. Therefore, new constructions have not always diagnosed old problems. Many critical projects have also been persistently hampered by the slow pace of the legal and administrative frameworks governing land appropriation and environmental licensing. Furthermore, while the vision of Multi-Modal Logistics Parks (MMLPs)[1] is transformative, its on-ground realisation has been sluggish. The model's heavy reliance on attracting substantial private investment for development and operations means that many approved MMLPs are yet to become fully functional, high-volume cargo hubs, highlighting a gap between policy blueprint and commercial reality.
A high-speed Dedicated Freight Corridor can only be efficient if the port's rail yard and handling infrastructure can absorb the increased throughput.
Recognising that an over-reliance on road (carrying over 60 percent of freight) is economically and environmentally unsustainable, Sagarmala has championed a modal shift towards coastal shipping and inland waterways. Coastal cargo movement has more than tripled over the decade, propelled by policy incentives, relaxed cabotage rules, and subsidies. The launch of commercially successful Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax ferry services, such as the Ghogha-Dahej and Ghogha-Hazira services in South Gujarat, has drastically cut transit times taken through circuitous road routes. However, significant hindrances remain. Despite its potential, coastal shipping still constitutes a minor share of India's domestic freight, hindered not by infrastructure but by operational and commercial, and diplomatic challenges. Unlike road and rail, shipping services often lack the liner-like reliability essential for time-sensitive cargo. Furthermore, weak first- and last-mile connectivity to smaller jetties negates the mode's inherent cost advantages. Policy frictions, such as differential GST on fuel and vessel bunkering compared with international lines, create an uneven playing field. Consequently, the long-term viability of key initiatives like Ro-Ro services remains questionable are uncertain once government support is withdrawn, raising doubt over whether this modal shift is truly market-driven and sustainable.
Perhaps the most defining, yet challenging, transformation has been the push for digitalisation. Recognising that data flow is as critical as cargo flow, the decade saw a significant evolution from the siloed, first-generation Port Community System (PCS 1x) to, unified National Logistics Platform-Marine (NLP-Marine). Envisioned as a one-stop digital portal, NLP-Marine aims to connect all stakeholders, ports, customs, shipping lines, freight forwarders, and transporters, on a single platform, enabling real-time data exchange and paperless transactions. This has been complemented by pioneering initiatives such as the Logistics Data Bank (LDB) project, which uses Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) technology through Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and Cloud-based solution to provide real-time tracking of EXIM container movement in India. These initiatives are directly credited with helping reduce documentation and clearance times, contributing significantly to improved port efficiency.
Envisioned as a one-stop digital portal, NLP-Marine aims to connect all stakeholders, ports, customs, shipping lines, freight forwarders, and transporters, on a single platform, enabling real-time data exchange and paperless transactions.
The leap in digital ambition has been profound, but true systemic integration remains elusive. The primary challenge is interoperability. While a national platform like NLP-Marine exists, getting all public and private stakeholders to abandon their legacy systems and fully integrate with it has been a slow and arduous process, creating “digital silos” instead of a seamless data highway. Digitisation succeeds not by platform creation, but by process transformation, by the extent to which it eliminates the physical human interface, which is a known source of delays, rent-seeking, and corruption. In many cases, existing bureaucratic processes have simply been “digitised” rather than fundamentally “re-engineered” for efficiency. For the Sagarmala initiative, the paramount digital challenge of the next decade is the leap from foundational data submission to a truly cognitive logistics network. This evolution entails creating a trusted, intelligent ecosystem where cargo flows are pre-emptively orchestrated by predictive insights, moving beyond the mere digitisation of trade documents handled by platforms like the Port Community Systems (PCSs).
While a decade of Sagarmala has catalysed undeniable progress in upgrading the physical ‘hardware’ of trade through port capacity expansion and new road and rail projects, its journey reveals a significant and persistent lag in developing the 'software' of systemic integration. The programme has modernised isolated assets, but a truly synchronised, multi-modal, and digitally unified network—the litmus test of its success—remains an incomplete agenda. This gap between isolated project completions and a cohesive, low-cost logistics ecosystem presents the central challenge and a pivotal focus for the next phase of India’s maritime transformation.
It is also important to note that the programme has created a port network, where some ports have surplus capacity ahead of current trade requirements. Without a parallel boost in trade volumes, manufacturing output, and supply chain linkages, India risks a growing number of underutilised maritime assets. As the programme enters its next decade, the emphasis must shift from expansion alone to the optimal utilisation of existing infrastructure, ensuring that ports can deliver the economic dividends they were built to generate.
Sohini Bose is an Associate Fellow with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.
Sreerupa Basu is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation.
[1] A Multi-Modal Logistics Park is a strategically located freight-handling facility that integrates multiple transportation modes to streamline logistics operations and reduce costs. These offer a one-stop solution for warehousing, storage, distribution, and value-added services, enhancing supply chain efficiency.
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Sohini Bose is an Associate Fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Kolkata with the Strategic Studies Programme. Her area of research is India’s eastern maritime ...
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Sreerupa Basu is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation. ...
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