The 21st Maritime State Development Council (MSDC) meeting held in Mumbai on 13 OCT 2026 concluded with significant decisions aimed at promoting integrated maritime growth, coordinated policy formulation, and planned development of maritime infrastructure.
The 21st Maritime State Development Council (MSDC), originally constituted in 1997, held its meeting on 13 OCT 2026 in Mumbai. After being recognized as a statutory consultative body under the Indian Ports Act, 2025, the council now functions with an enhanced mandate to promote integrated maritime growth and coordinated policy formulation for planned development of maritime infrastructure.
Attendees included Ministers of Coastal States, Administrators of Union Territories, senior officials of State Maritime Boards, Chairpersons of Major Ports, allied maritime institutions, and representatives of Central Ministries. Among the dignitaries present were Shri Digambar V. Kamat, Finance Minister of Gujarat; Shri Digambar V. Kamat, Minister (Ports), Government of Goa; Minister of Fisheries & Ports Development, Government of Maharashtra; and Shri Malladi Krishna Rao, Minister from Puducherry.
During the meeting, the council adopted the Maritime India Vision 2030 (MIV 2030) and Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 (MAKV 2047) targets, which together identify over 500 initiatives across ports, shipping, inland waterways, shipbuilding, green shipping, and global collaboration. States and State Maritime Boards were urged to prepare Port Master Plans for Other Than Major Ports aligned with these national targets.
The council endorsed the priorities of the National Perspective Plan and resolved that States should fast-track multimodal connectivity projects through road, rail, inland waterways, pipelines, and conveyors. It also resolved that States, in coordination with MoPSW, would develop port-linked industrial clusters integrated with port capacity expansion and connectivity projects.
In a major step towards ease of doing business, the council resolved that the One Nation One Port Process (ONOP) reforms, including One Nation One Documentation, Port Process Re-engineering, and Inter-ministerial Process Reforms, would be implemented across all ports by March 2027. All ports were also mandated to integrate with the Maritime Single Window (MSW – Sagar Setu) by March 2027.
Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal emphasized the significance of the meeting, stating that the MSDC's decisions represented cooperative federalism in maritime governance. He added that these decisions would deliver for ports and port-led industrialization.
Source:
Press Information Bureau
