India's Maritime investment summit to see Rs 3 lakh crore investment announcements
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India's key focus has been on connectivity via the sea in recent days, with Chabahar in the West becoming key in connecting to Afghanistan and beyond
India's Maritime investment summit starting Tuesday will see investment announcements worth Rs 3 lakh crore, with 400 MoUs being signed. The summit, from 2nd to 4th March will be inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.
"India is moving very fast in the maritime sector from Port development to port-led industrialization, ship-building, cruise tourism, ship breaking. All these sectors have seen the world taking note of India. The world community has taken a keen interest in the maritime sector development of India.... the world is joining it and seeing it as inspiration", Minister of state for ports and Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya told WION.
The ministry of ports is the main coordinating ministry for the event. 1.70 lakh people have registered and over 100 companies across the world will be taking part in it. Thursday will see "Chabahar day" which will see the participation of ministers from Armenia, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan. All in all, 24 countries will be joining the summit
India's key focus has been on connectivity via the sea in recent days, with Chabahar in the West becoming key in connecting to Afghanistan and beyond. January saw India giving two cranes for the port to Iran.
Mandaviya explained, "Chabahar port is an important destination, and we are developing it. two cranes have been put in. I will be going and inaugurating it. Chabahar connects us to CIS countries... which will increase connectivity to Europe. Chabahar port is important."
The minister is expected to visit Iran soon as part of India's increased engagement for the port. Towards the east, it is Kaladan Multimodal project in Myanmar being built by India. The minister said," Sittwe port has been built. Using the Kaladan river we will connect Mizoram to Sittwe port. Road work is ongoing, port work has been completed. Port is operationalized. In presence of PM, we could inaugurate the port soon"
Recent years have seen increased connectivity with Bangladesh using inland waterways. These inland waterways have provided connectivity to Tripura and lower Assam, with Bangladesh's Chattogram and Mongla port providing outlets to the sea for India's northeast.
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