Proposals for state-of-the-art ferry service to 5 locations across the country by sea.

 News Desk:
 An important meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee meeting was held on Friday at the Science Building in New Delhi.  The meeting was chaired by Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and AYUS Sarbananda Sonowal 
The meeting was attended by Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashwini Vaishnav, Bhupendra Yadav, G. Kisan Reddy, Gowda Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and other coastal ministers.Sagarmala is a national program being implemented with the aim of accelerating the economic development of the country (NSAC Meeting in New Delhi).  Out of this, 202 projects have already been completed at a total cost of Rs. 99,261 crore.Union Minister Sarbananda Sonawale said that "the successful completion of the national flagship program Sagarmala for 6 years has been instrumental in accelerating the country's massive development and economic development.''According to Sonawale, the capacity of Indian ports in 2014-15 was 1531 million tonnes per annum, which increased to 2554.61 million tonnes in 2020-21.  A total of 56 projects will be implemented with an estimated investment of Rs 56,600 crore for the overall development of the coastal districts of the country, said Sarwananda Sonowal .He also mentioned that the Inland Waterways Authority of India has proposed state-of-the-art ferry service for 5 places to improve the quality of urban water transport.  This includes Varanasi, Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati and Dibrugarh.  The Union Ministers present at the meeting emphasized on the need to prepare a master plan for the improvement of port infrastructure.