Context

Under the National Perspective Plan of the Sagarmala Programme, fourteen Coastal economic Zones (CEZs) were envisaged including three in the state of Tamil Nadu.

About

About Sagarmala Programme:

• The Sagarmala Programme is a huge project taken up by the Indian government to improve the country’s logistic sector.
• This Pariyojana falls under the governance of the Ministry of Shipping of India.
• Covering India’s longest coastline of 7,517 km, waterways of 14,500 km, and global maritime trade pathways, the Sagarmala Project aims to promote industrial port-led development in the country.

Port-led Industrialization

• Vision of the Sagarmala Programme is to reduce logistics cost and time for the movement of EXIM and domestic cargo. Development of port-proximate industrial capacities near the coast, in future, is a step in this direction.
• In this regard, the concepts of Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs), Coastal Economic Units (CEUs), Port-Linked Industrial & Maritime Clusters and Smart Industrial Port Cities have been introduced.
  • Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs): CEZs could be spatial economic regions comprising of a group of coastal districts or districts with a strong linkage to the ports in that region. CEZs are also envisaged to tap synergies with the planned industrial corridor projects
  • Coastal Economic Units (CEUs): CEUs will be specific industrial estate projects with a demarcated boundary similar to the DMIC nodes. The CEUs will house the industrial clusters / projects proposed within the CEZ.
• Each CEZ will consist of multiple CEUs and more than one industrial cluster can be housed within a CEU.
  • Within each industrial cluster there can be several manufacturing units.
  • To accelerate the CEU development process, it is proposed that CEUs be prioritized in locations where land parcels are available in areas close to a deep draught port and with strong potential for manufacturing.
• An Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) was constituted under the aegis of NITI Aayog for development of CEZs in India.
  • As recommended by IMC, the institutional framework for development of CEZs would be similar to the institutional framework adopted by DMICDC for development of industrial corridors and industrial node
• The development of CEZs will be taken up in phases wherein the first phase of development would focus on developing two large CEZs as pilots.