New Delhi — India has opened the doors to what could be the nation’s most ambitious wager on a single sector of the decade: a $1 trillion investment proposal to reshape ports, shipbuilding, coastal supply chains, and green naval services—and it’s calling the world to join in. The vision, outlined at an Ambassadors’ Roundtable organized by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways in preparation for India Maritime Week 2025, recasts India’s coastline as a trillion-dollar economic platform instead of just a shipping route. Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal positioned the initiative much above it as an investment in infrastructure.
The master plan will be used as a platform for trans-mega-port and transshipment hub collaborations, multimodal terminals connecting rail and inland waterways into port-based logistics, shipbuilding clusters, ship repair and recycling facilities, and even emerging green-hydrogen hubs to decarbonize marine fuel chains. That synergy—grimy infrastructure with clean-tech twists—is what lends the number $1 trillion weight: it’s not quays and concrete; it’s an industrial-ecosystem bet.
Why the hurry? India’s maritime infrastructure is already carrying most of the country’s trade. Nearly 95% of India’s trade by weight—and probably two-thirds by value—arrives by sea, supporting everything from oil imports of crude to containerized exports and fertilizers. Those streams put a premium on port and coastal transport efficiency and are directly at work affecting national competitiveness. Meanwhile, India’s quantifiable shoreline has recently been expanded upwards as a result of new cartographic technology, adding to the nation’s usable coast and the range of coastal development. The declaration comes following stringent policy enforcement.
Earlier this year the government pledged a standalone Maritime Development Fund to drive shipbuilding and ship repair—a move that initially surfaced in the budget in the form of a more or less $3-billion fund aimed at guaranteeing industry capacity—and the Ministry of Finance has indicated intentions to significantly boost that fund to drive projects more quickly. The funds used to pay for them do matter: megaprojects require long-horizon finance, and state-sponsored funds can make private partners and foreign investors more feasible.
In addition to numbers, the plan outlines some concrete objectives that must appeal to strategic and private equity investors: new container terminals, colossal transshipment complexes, LNG bunkering bases, green fuel-efficient ports, and shipyards to build and repair next-generation fleets. India is already managing some 1.65 billion tonnes of port cargo in FY24 and has also recorded record throughput at major ports in FY25—an indication of increasing demand and the pressure on capacity available. The expectation of the roadmap is to tap that growth locally and not let it slip through congestion or inefficient hinterland connections. Additionally, there are various strategic initiatives underway. Building more shipbuilding and repair capacity would curb foreign yard dependency, provide coastal manufacturing jobs, and resuscitate ancillary industries from steel to semiconductors. Green hydrogen clusters and shipping technologies decarbonized, on the other hand, can draw climate-conscious capital and position India in the eye of maritime decarbonization currents globally—a sector facing mounting regulatory urgency to lower emissions.
Critics will wonder whether a trillion-dollar vision is headline fantasy or a pipe-softer reality. Making this plan work will rely on clear project priorities, getting the necessary environmental and land approvals, and creating public-private partnerships that provide profits for investors and benefits for coastal communities. The government’s recent interactions with over two dozen foreign diplomats indicate Delhi is attempting to prioritize coalition politics and foreign capital ahead of the ground being broken.
If acted upon, the plan would do more than slash ports—it would seek to put India’s blue economy on the 21st-century world map: cleaner fuel in bunkers, smarter hinterland connections, and shipyards humming with new orders. For a nation whose seas already carry the rhythm of its trade, that’s a wager on leverage and resilience—and the clear indication that India is looking to its future story not on the continent, but on the tides.
