Has the Maha Cabinet Unveiled a New Policy for Ship-Building and Recycling?

Mumbai, April 29 (NationPress) The Maharashtra Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has recently approved a detailed policy aimed at ship-building, ship-repairing, and ship-recycling.

"The Port Development Policy has been periodically revised to align with the evolving demands of the state’s maritime industry, the market conditions, and the aspirations of entrepreneurs. Currently, it is being executed as per the Maharashtra Maritime Development Policy-2023. However, a distinct policy focusing on ship-building, ship-repairing, and ship-recycling became essential and was consequently approved today," stated the government release.

"The Central government, through the Maritime India Vision-2030 and Maritime Amritkal Vision-2047, aims to position India among the top ten nations globally in the ship-building and ship repair sectors, and as the leading nation in ship-recycling by 2030. Furthermore, it aims for India to be within the top five in shipbuilding by 2047. With these goals in mind, a dedicated policy has been crafted to concentrate on the ship-building, ship-repair, and ship-recycling industries. The formulation of this policy involved studying the approaches of leading international nations and other states within India," the release added.

Under this policy, the government plans to focus on the development of the ship-building, ship-repair, and ship-recycling industries. The provisions outlined will empower port project developers to establish new ship-recycling initiatives.

This initiative aims to maximize the utilization of port land and waterfront, while also providing facilities for ship recycling. New projects in ship-building will facilitate the construction and maintenance of Indian vessels.

Additionally, ship-recycling facilities will be established to dismantle ships that have reached the end of their operational life. This will guide the advancement of the ship-building, ship-repair, and ship-recycling sectors across the state.

In another decision, the Cabinet sanctioned an expenditure of Rs 488.53 crore for the completion of remaining works and leakage prevention measures for the Temghar project located in Pune district.

A stone dam with a storage capability of 3.812 billion cubic feet has been constructed on the Mutha River at Mauje Lawarde-Temghar (Tal. Mulshi).

This project, under the Krishna Valley Development Corporation, aims to supply 3.409 billion cubic feet of drinking water to Pune city and irrigation for a thousand hectares across nine villages in Mulshi taluka through five Kolhapuri dams downstream of the main dam.

Since 2010-11, the dam has been at full storage capacity, yet significant leakage issues persist. To fully capitalize on the water resources from the project, measures to halt the leakage were approved in February 2025.

In line with this, the Cabinet meeting granted the second revised administrative approval for the remaining works and leakage prevention strategies.