Sagarmala is a programme launched in 2015 to promote port-led development by modernising ports, improving port connectivity, building coastal economic zones and developing coastal communities. Bharatmala Pariyojana, approved in 2017, is a programme to build and upgrade national highways, including economic corridors, border and coastal roads and expressways, to improve road freight efficiency.
Both programmes followed earlier efforts. The National Highways Development Project, started in 1998, built the Golden Quadrilateral and North–South and East–West corridors. Port policy had focused on corporatising major ports and inviting private terminal operators. Sagarmala and Bharatmala tried to move from building individual assets to planning networks based on freight flows, using origin–destination studies of cargo.
India's exports and imports travel mostly by sea, yet for decades its ports suffered from congestion, long turnaround times and poor road and rail links to hinterlands. Inland, freight moved largely on highways that were narrow, congested and passed through towns, so trucks travelled slowly and fuel costs were high. These bottlenecks raised the cost of doing business and made Indian goods less competitive.
The two programmes were designed to address the sea and road sides of this problem. Sagarmala aimed to make ports the centres of economic activity, linking them with industrial clusters and coastal shipping, while Bharatmala aimed to create an efficient highway network, focusing on corridors that carry most freight. This page looks at the two together as a logistics strategy, and at the lessons from their implementation, while integrated planning tools are covered on the Gati Shakti page.
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