Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday, 24 June 2026 cited sweeping gains across India's maritime sector, crediting 12 years of governance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi for transforming port capacity, inland waterway cargo volumes and ship recycling into global benchmarks.

Context

Posting under the hashtag #12YearsOfSeva, Minister Sonowal listed three headline figures: port capacity up by 81 per cent, national waterways cargo up by 652 per cent, and India reaching the position of world's number-one ship recycler — a milestone he said was achieved ahead of schedule. The post is part of a wider BJP communication drive marking a dozen years since the Modi government took office in May 2014.

Sonowal, a senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister of Assam, has helmed the ports and waterways portfolio since 2021 and has consistently framed maritime growth as central to the Atmanirbhar Bharat agenda.

Policy Backdrop

The figures cited by the minister sit within a layered policy architecture built over the past decade. The Sagarmala Project, launched in 2015, initiated port-led development by modernising berths, improving road and rail connectivity to ports, and fostering coastal economic zones. A year later, the National Waterways Act of 2016 declared 111 national waterways, opening the inland network to systematic cargo development under the Inland Waterways Authority of India.

The Maritime India Vision 2030, unveiled in 2021, set structured targets for capacity expansion, green shipping and self-reliance, providing the strategic scaffold within which the current numbers are being reported. On ship recycling, regulatory upgrades in 2019 aligned Indian standards with the Hong Kong Convention, helping formalise and scale operations at facilities such as the Alang Shipbreaking Yard in Gujarat — the world's largest ship-recycling complex by tonnage.

These strands also connect to the PM Gati Shakti national master plan, which treats ports and waterways as critical nodes in a multimodal freight network designed to reduce logistics costs and carbon emissions simultaneously.

Stakeholders and Impact

The claimed 652 per cent surge in national waterways cargo, if sustained, represents a structural shift for logistics companies and inland waterway operators who have long argued that river freight is cheaper and cleaner than road transport. Port authorities across major gateways — from Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai to Deendayal Port in Kandla — have been the primary beneficiaries of the capacity expansion drive.

For the ship-recycling industry, the world number-one ranking is commercially significant: it positions Alang and associated yards as preferred destinations for end-of-life vessels globally, generating employment and raw steel supply for domestic industries. Environmental compliance upgrades have also been central to sustaining this standing in the face of competition from Bangladesh and Turkey.

What's Next

The ministry's next major data checkpoint is expected in the forthcoming annual economic survey and ministry performance report, which will either validate or contextualise the figures Sonowal cited. Parliament may also take up proposed updates to shipping and recycling legislation in the coming session. Analysts will watch whether the Maritime India Vision 2030 mid-term review, due in the next planning cycle, recalibrates targets in light of the growth trajectory the minister has outlined. A greener, self-reliant maritime sector, as Sonowal framed it, will ultimately be judged by whether capacity gains translate into lower freight costs and measurable emissions reductions for the broader economy.