Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday, 3 July 2026, visited Maersk's Saksham Warehouse at ICD Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, interacting with the women workforce running the facility and calling it a 'great example of Nari Shakti strengthening India's maritime logistics and supply chains.'

Context

The Saksham Warehouse at ICD Dadri — one of the largest inland container depots serving the National Capital Region — is operated by Maersk, the Danish global shipping and logistics major with deep warehousing and container operations across India. The facility is staffed by women, representing a visible push toward gender inclusion in a sector historically dominated by men.

Minister Sonowal's visit drew attention to the intersection of two policy priorities: expanding India's inland logistics infrastructure and broadening workforce participation in maritime supply chains. He described the interaction with the women running the warehouse as 'inspiring.'

Policy Backdrop

The visit sits within a layered policy architecture. The Sagarmala Project, launched in 2015, set the foundation for port-led development and inland logistics connectivity, with ICDs like Dadri serving as critical nodes in multimodal freight networks. The National Logistics Policy, notified in 2022, built on this by targeting lower logistics costs and tighter integration of warehousing and container depots into national supply chains.

The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, unveiled in 2021, further coordinates infrastructure investment across ministries to eliminate bottlenecks in freight movement. Gender-focused skilling and employment initiatives have increasingly been layered onto these frameworks, reflecting a broader government emphasis on Nari Shakti — women's empowerment — as a cross-sectoral development theme.

Stakeholders and Impact

Maersk's decision to run a women-staffed warehouse at a high-throughput logistics hub like ICD Dadri signals a shift in industry practice, offering a replicable model for other logistics firms operating at ports and ICDs across the country. For the women employed there, the facility represents access to formal employment in a sector that has traditionally offered limited entry points for women workers.

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has a direct stake in scaling such models: a more diverse workforce broadens the labour pool available to an industry under pressure to handle growing freight volumes efficiently. Supply chain firms, port operators, and skilling agencies are among those watching whether the Dadri model translates into wider policy or programmatic support.

What's Next

The minister's public endorsement of the Saksham Warehouse model raises the prospect of similar women-centric warehousing or skilling initiatives being encouraged at other ICDs and major ports under the Sagarmala and Gati Shakti umbrellas. Upcoming logistics and maritime policy updates may reference gender inclusion benchmarks more explicitly as the government seeks to align workforce development with infrastructure expansion goals.

With India's logistics sector targeted for significant capacity addition over the next decade, the integration of women into supply-chain operations — at scale — could become a measurable policy output rather than a showcase initiative.