India has discreetly embarked on a bold endeavour to transform its maritime future — and this time the fuel is green. Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped amplify the message this week by sharing a long piece by Sarbananda Sonowal, union minister for ports, shipping and waterways, who frames a recently approved ₹69,725 crore (nearly $8 billion) package as more than a budgetary commitment: it is a committed bid to push India into the forefront of low-carbon shipping and shipbuilding.
What is noteworthy about the plan is when and how it is being proposed. Global shipping is under intense pressure to decarbonise, and India claims to sit at a “rare confluence” of affordable renewable energy, heavy industry capacity, and a skilled workforce in the maritime sector—elements that could see India transform its ports and shipyards into hubs for green fuels and sustainable maritime services. The implications of the financial commitment, Sonowal says, are intended to not just modernise our ports and docks; it is meant to catalyse a suite of renewable energy production, bunkering and “green-ready” ports capable of anchoring new functional trade routes.
Concrete puts the rhetoric into action. The Centre has designated three significant ports—including Deendayal (Kandla), V.O. Chidambar Anar (Tuticorin), and Paradip—as Green Hydrogen Hubs in the context of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, making it likely that these entities may become centres for the production and bunkering of future low-carbon fuels. This designation is an obvious sign to investors that ports will be vital nodes in India’s clean-fuel rollout.
Small but revealing pilot projects are already being implemented. Deendayal Port has quickly rolled out a “Make in India” 1 MW green hydrogen plant (built in months that uses only domestically produced electrolyser technology) that is initially planned to fuel port vehicles and street lighting, and, in time, tugs and other mobile loads. Projects such as these demonstrate the stepwise approach Sonowal talks about. First, you test and validate the technology at a local level; second, you initiate demand aggregation across multiple corridors; and third, you scale it up to meet industrial shipping demand.
India’s competitive edge is not simply a policy issue. The swift decline in costs for renewable power and storage has translated green hydrogen and electrified logistic chains into more economically viable options compared to a few years ago. International energy agencies and market studies attest to dramatic falls in global solar and battery costs – which India has managed to ride, thanks to its growing domestic renewable generation capacity and competitive cap on auction prices. The reduction in costs has made port-side green fuel production much less of a pipedream and much more of a near-term industrial opportunity.
Strategically, the plan is about the route economics as much as emissions. Sonowal and the Prime Minister cite two trade corridors cutting east-west through India’s western and southern ports – a backbone of container traffic that, should green bunkering be in place, would result in the aggregation of demand and attract shipping lines looking for low-carbon trade options. Conceptually flagged early are domestic green corridors such as Kandla-VOC and international links to other major ports, such as Singapore and Rotterdam – corridors that could present proof-of-concept. Ideal types of decarbonised shipping markets are emerging.
If the gamble proves successful, it could lead to significant benefits such as the creation of high-skill jobs in shipbuilding and green fuel production, the design and production of ships and electrolysers for export abroad, a reduction in carbon hazards for India’s import-export systems, and a stronger negotiating position in global maritime standards negotiations. However, this route will depend on combined industrial policy, funding structures that lower the capital costs for green projects, and, importantly, the capacity to build out early pilots into commercial bunkering operations that shipping lines feel secure using.
As a result, India’s maritime moment represents both a practical effort and a storytelling one: a proposal that national industrial policy, tapering renewable energy costs, and targeted investments in ports can shape perfect ordinary trade routes into corridors of climate leadership. If the $8 billion signal, however, turns out to signal a huge shipping revolution, time will tell, but India has gone from aspiration to action, and now the world’s ports are watching.
