Sarbananda Sonowal has been reappointed as the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways after the Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance came to power for the third consecutive term in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. Sonowal’s junior colleague Shantanu Thakur will also continue as the Minister of State in the ministry.
In his previous term Sonowal, who won from Dibrugarh seat in Assam, laid focus on the development of inland waterways in the Northeast region, connecting it to the rest of India via Bangladesh. He is expected to continue the momentum on inland waterways as the ministry works on developing and extending the waterways from Pandu Port in Guwahati to Dibrugarh located in upper Assam.
Under his new tenure, the ministry is expected to continue to embark on a landlord model of port modernisation and development, wherein the various port authorities act as regulators and the operations and management of major ports is looked after by private operators.
Sonowal and the shipping ministry are also expected to continue to give impetus on the development of regional corridors connecting India. In his last tenure, special focus was given on the development of Chabahar Port in Iran by India for strengthening the International North-South Transport Corridor which connects Russia to South Asia as well as the development of Chennai–Vladivostok Maritime Corridor.