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Vadhavan Port in Palghar district, approved by the Union Cabinet on 19 June 2024 at an estimated Rs 76,220 crore, is being developed as an all-weather greenfield deep-draft major port and is expected to create 298 million metric tonnes per annum of cargo capacity.
The Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme has been approved with an outlay of Rs 24,736 crore to offset the cost disadvantage of Indian shipyards, with guidelines issued on 26 December 2025.
A Maritime Development Fund of Rs 25,000 crore has been established, comprising a Rs 20,000 crore Maritime Investment Fund with 49 per cent Government participation and a Rs 5,000 crore Interest Incentivization Fund.
The National Shipbuilding Mission, an inter-ministerial body, has given in-principle approval to greenfield shipbuilding clusters in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
On inland waterways, the Jalvahak Scheme offers incentives of up to 35 per cent for cargo movement, and the Jalyan and Navic portal has registered 9,953 inland vessels and 1,215 crew as on 30 July 2026.
Add deep-draft capacity on the western coast to meet projected growth in cargo and container traffic
Key: Approved 19 June 2024 at Rs 76,220 crore; 298 MMTPA capacity on completion; built through a JNPA-Maharashtra Maritime Board special purpose vehicle, with dedicated NHAI road and Western Railway rail links
Offset the cost disadvantage Indian shipyards face against global competitors
Key: Outlay Rs 24,736 crore; an extension of the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Policy, with operational guidelines issued on 26 December 2025
Provide long-term financing to the shipbuilding and maritime sector
Key: Corpus of Rs 25,000 crore, split into a Rs 20,000 crore Maritime Investment Fund for equity financing with 49 per cent Government participation, and a Rs 5,000 crore Interest Incentivization Fund to lower the effective cost of debt; guidelines issued 20 February 2026, with SBI Ventures Limited appointed Fund Manager for the MIF on 26 May 2026
Act as the nodal agency overseeing implementation of the shipbuilding schemes
Key: An inter-ministerial body overseeing SBFAS and the Shipbuilding Development Scheme; has given in-principle approval, after appraisal, to greenfield shipbuilding clusters in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and to three brownfield capacity expansion projects at existing shipyards
Shift cargo from road and rail to inland waterways
Key: Provides incentives of up to 35 per cent for cargo movement on inland waterways
Draw private investment into terminal and jetty infrastructure on National Waterways
Key: Enables construction and operation of terminals by private entities, complemented by PPP models that assign operation and maintenance of terminals over long concession periods
Create a single national registry for inland vessels and crew
Key: A One Nation One Registration single-window system, fully operational with 18 States and UTs onboarded, 9,953 inland vessels and 1,215 crew registered as on 30 July 2026
Draft is the vertical distance between a ship's waterline and the lowest point of its hull — in effect, the depth of water a vessel needs to float. Modern container ships have grown so large that many established Indian ports cannot take them fully loaded, so containers bound for India are often carried to a deep-water hub elsewhere and transferred to smaller vessels for the final leg. That transfer is transshipment, and it means the handling revenue and the logistics ecosystem sit outside India while Indian exporters absorb the extra cost and time. A greenfield deep-draft port such as Vadhavan is built to receive the largest vessels directly, which is why the release ties it to reducing dependence on foreign transshipment ports. The same logic explains the accompanying investments: a port is only as useful as its hinterland links, hence the dedicated 32.74 km NHAI road and 22.22 km Western Railway line built alongside it.
Simple Analogy: A shallow port is a runway too short for a wide-body aircraft: the plane must land elsewhere and passengers finish the journey on a smaller one.
India's leading container port, with a capacity of 175.87 MMTPA, and the majority partner holding 74 per cent in the Vadhavan Port Project Limited special purpose vehicle
The state maritime authority, holding 26 per cent in the Vadhavan Port SPV and responsible for non-major ports in the state, whose cumulative capacity has reached 130.75 MMTPA
Develops and regulates inland waterways for shipping and navigation; established in 1986 under the Inland Waterways Authority of India Act, 1985
Inter-ministerial nodal agency for shipbuilding schemes, appraising and approving shipbuilding cluster and capacity expansion proposals
Governs the 12 major ports wholly owned by the Government of India — Deendayal, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, V. O. Chidambaranar, Chennai, Kamarajar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Syama Prasad Mookerjee — replacing the earlier trust-board structure with port authorities having greater autonomy. Vadhavan is being developed as a greenfield deep-draft major port
Declared 111 inland waterways as National Waterways, with a total length of 20,187 km spread across 23 states
The statute under which IWAI was established in 1986 to develop and regulate inland waterways for shipping and navigation
Notified to enable private entities to construct and operate terminals and jetties on National Waterways
The release positions the shipbuilding and financing initiatives explicitly against these two long-horizon frameworks for making India a global maritime hub
Operationalising additional routes under the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade, first signed in 1972, is listed among the measures to expand cargo movement; the IBP routes were earlier raised from 8 to 10 with the Sonamura-Daudkhandi stretch of the Gumti river
The Jalvahak incentive and multimodal terminal development target the shift of cargo from road and rail to waterways, which is the core logistics-cost argument of the National Logistics Policy
Vadhavan's largest single component, offshore reclamation worth Rs 20,647 crore, is being executed under PPP-HAM, linking this to the broader PPP-model syllabus
GS Paper 3 > Infrastructure > Ports, Shipping and Inland Waterways
General Awareness > Indian Geography and Economy
General Awareness > Infrastructure Financing and Government Schemes
General Awareness > Transport Infrastructure
Port infrastructure, National Waterways and maritime schemes recur across Prelims and are standing GS Paper 3 infrastructure themes
The depth of water a vessel needs to float; a deep-draft port can receive the largest fully loaded container ships
Transferring cargo from a large vessel to a smaller one at an intermediate hub, which India currently outsources to foreign ports for much of its container traffic
Million metric tonnes per annum, the standard unit for port cargo handling capacity
The Hybrid Annuity Model of public-private partnership, used for Vadhavan's Rs 20,647 crore offshore reclamation component
The scheme providing incentives of up to 35 per cent to shift cargo onto inland waterways
The One Nation One Registration single-window national registry for inland vessels and crew