While employment opportunities related to ports may be an unfamiliar territory for the young people of Nagaland, the development of the recently laid foundation for India’s biggest port under the name “Vadhvan Port” by the Prime Minister of India is expected to create immense job opportunities for Indian citizens across the country.
“Vadhvan Port”, which is to be constructed in the Palghar district of Maharashtra will be developed by Vadhavan Port Project Limited (VPPL) as a joint venture of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB). The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) at Navi Mumbai is also known as India’s best-performing port and is ranked 26th among the top 100 Container Ports in the world. JNPA is also connected to over 200 ports in the world.
Further with the development of the biggest port in India, which will be three times bigger than JNPA according to Unmesh Sharad Wagh, IRS, Chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), “Vadhvan Port” is also expected to be among the top ten in the world once developed.
“We are building the biggest port in India and we will need a lot of people”, the Chairman told the 13-member visiting journalists from Nagaland who are currently on an 8-day PIB Kohima Media Tour to Mumbai led by K Sonikumar Singh, Assistant Director, PIB Kohima as the Conducting Officer. “This would require so much of employment”, Unmesh Sharad Wagh, IRS underscored while highlighting that they are looking at at least 12 lakhs direct employment and over a crore indirect employment in this regard.
Stating that there is much potential to give employment to all Indians including the NE, he said that there is especially demand for skilling. In this regard, he urged for the need for young people from the North East to be part of the employment force for the developing biggest port at a project cost of ₹76,220 Crore.
‘We want North East to learn about this sector’
Pointing to the future of the Port and the huge potential that is has for employment opportunities, Unmesh Sharad Wagh, IRS, Chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) remarked, “we are committed to the development of North East and we want people of North East to learn about this sector.”
If North East wants to have access to it in respect of being trained on the required skillset, he said, “we are more than happy to help.” The Chairman highlighted that JNPA is willing to impart training in this regard.
He further impressed upon me that this does not require very high technical skilling, but a remunerative field where one can get good remuneration.
Mention may be made here that upon completion, Vadhvan Port will add a container capacity of 15 Million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) in the year 2035, which will increase to 23.9 Million TEUs by 2040.
It may also be noted here that the main objectives of organizing the PIB Kohima Media tour are to provide the state media the opportunity to witness various Government of India schemes and projects in Mumbai, and also gain insights into the socio-economic and cultural aspects of Maharashtra.