Sagar Mala Project to Boost Country’s Infrastructure and Realty

The prime minister made an announcement in Goa on June 14th this year regarding connecting the port and coastal cities of India via the ‘Sagar Mala’ project. The project intends to interconnect the coastal cities via roads, ports, rails and airports. This project will not only improve the infrastructure, but will also impact the realty sector of all these cities.

The ‘Sagar Mala’ project

The ‘Sagar Mala’ project is Rs 100,000 crore project intended to provide an impetus to a necklace of projects along the coastal line of the country. The project will be mainly focused on improving the ports, the road and rail networks, and the communication networks. The project will not only encompass the seas, but also the inland waterways. The prime minister stated that the coastal cities could be interconnected via gas grid, water grid, power grid and an optical fibre network. This will provide modern infrastructure to the coastal and port cities in the country.

The draft outline of the project gives a view of the shape, size and cost of the project in different cities. It also provides a view of fund raising for the project. The Central government will be providing about 15 per cent of the total project cost.

Under the project, all the major ports will be connected via high-speed expressways to form the Golden Quadrilateral. The previous BJP led government focused on develop world-class container trans-shipment port in Kochi. It also aimed at upgrading JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust) and Chennai Port Trust to hub ports.

The project also aims at making the transportation efficient for specific commodities. This is expected to provide fillip to economic activity and investments in areas along the waterways. The project is also expected to provide an employment to more than two lakh people in the next 10 years.

How it will affect the real estate

The project is aimed at improving the infrastructure across multiple cities along the ring. This will not only improve infrastructure, but will also significantly improve the connectivity between different cities as well as the economic activity. With improved infrastructure and economic activity, one may expect more job opportunities across different cities either connected along the necklace or that are in close proximity to the area. This provides all the basic necessities required to attract a good resident population. This will naturally lead to a growth in residential housing as well as commercial projects.