The Ministry of Shipping has sanctioned Rs 25 crore as grants-in-aid to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and another Rs 50 crore to the Government of Karnataka for the Karwar port for developing their infrastructure under the Coastal Berth Scheme of its flagship programme ‘Sagarmala’. The Coastal Berth Scheme aims to provide financial assistance to ports or states in order to create infrastructure for movement of cargo and passengers either by sea or national waterways. The permissible financial support from the Centre is 50 per cent of the total cost of the project subject to a maximum of Rs 25 crore for projects relating to construction and upgradation of coastal berths by major and non-major ports and a maximum of Rs 10 crore for construction of platforms and jetties for hovercraft and seaplanes by ports and state governments and passenger jetties in National Waterways and islands by states, among others. The other conditions involve a maximum of Rs 15 crore for mechanisation of berths by major and non-major ports, a maximum of Rs 50 crore for capital dredging of operational non-major ports and a maximum of Rs 50 crore in order to construct breakwater for existing and greenfield ports. The project at the Jawaharlal Nehru port, with a cost of an estimated Rs 170 crore, will be completed by March 2019. It involves construction of a coastal berth and port craft jetty, reclamation and capital dredging in coastal berth. The Karwar port project, which involves extension of the existing southern breakwater by 145 metres and construction of a new north breakwater of 1,160 metres, is likely to be completed in three years, the estimated cost of the project is Rs 215 crore.
