Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said at Puri that coastal and waterway shipping will carry 12% of India's freight by 2047, up from the present 6% share.
Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal met HD Hyundai Chairman Chung Ki-sun in Seoul to push the proposed 4 billion dollar greenfield shipyard at Thoothukudi.
At Busan, Sarbananda Sonowal won Cyprus's backing for EU recognition of Indian ship-recycling yards and courted Korean shipbuilders and maritime financiers.
At a World Maritime Day ministerial roundtable in Busan, Sarbananda Sonowal sought universal shipping rules with flexible implementation and wooed Korean firms.
The 21st Maritime State Development Council met in Mumbai on 13 October 2026, its first sitting as a statutory body, and cleared two shipbuilding insurance covers.
Sarbananda Sonowal will flag off India's first international cargo voyage from Dibrugarh, carrying APCL methanol to Pangaon Port in Dhaka via National Waterway-2.
