Port Development and capacity building

India is dependent on road network for cargo transportation as water transport is just 3.5% of total cargo transportation and railways are suffering from inefficiency, loading delay, poor service etc. Hence through Make in India initiative Indian government want to boost cargo transportation through water mode. There are many benefits of this-

--- First of all cargo transportation through water mode is very cheap. Only 20 paisa per km is the cost over that road and railways cost around 1.5 and 1 rupee per km respectively.
--- increased cargo transportation through water will prompt port development and their capacity building which ultimately boost the economy and help in employment generation.
--- just port development and capacity building will the do the trick to uptick economy, but it will force us to improve connectivity of ports to hinterland through roads and railways to make it a successful affair.

Targets, initiatives and achievements of Indian government in this direction-

--- Indian government has already started to move in this direction as our port capacity has increased to 965.3 million tonnes from 800 million tonnes in last two years.
--- Over that our 11 out 13 major ports have witnessed capacity development in last 2 years.
--- Considering it the top priority of the govt it is targeted to achieve 1400 million tonnes to 3000 million tonnes of total port capacity by 2025.
--- Logistics cost has to be bring down. At present it is 18%. It is targeted to bring it down to 12%. As high costs leads to overall higher cost of products makes them nonviable for major section of society, unpopular among people and increase inflation. China has logistics cost at 8%.

It is right time as world economy is also recovering and few internal reforms on the parts of Indian government in manufacturing and infrastructure development can uptick our economy.