Panaji: Goa will soon establish a maritime board to better utilise its 105-kilometre coastline and inland waterways, announced ports minister Digambar Kamat on Thursday while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) conference on logistics.“The process has already started and I assure you that very soon you will have the Goa Maritime Board because it is the right thing,” the ports minister said.He said that the ports department deliberated on the suggestions from the industry, along with inputs from states that set up their own maritime board.“I got details from various states and many states already formed their maritime boards. We are going through all the details and I will take all the stakeholders into confidence before finalising the maritime board constitution,” he said.The minister emphasised that forming the board was part of efforts to accelerate the state’s economic growth. “Effort is being made to see that Goa’s growth is at a fast pace. One of the suggestions by CII is the Goa Maritime Board,” he said.Kamat acknowledged that despite having a substantial coastline, Goa did not adequately exploit its maritime potential. “We have 105km of coastline, but we did not utilise it, unfortunately,” he said, drawing comparisons with Kerala, which successfully leveraged its waterways and backwaters for tourism and transport.“Unfortunately, Goa did not explore much. We have lots of opportunities,” the ports minister said, adding that the state’s current focus on road transport needs to be balanced with greater emphasis on river-based transportation.“We are concentrating only on roads. We have to give more thrust to transport through rivers and in Goa it is possible,” Kamat stated, expressing optimism about developing water transport infrastructure.The proposal for a Goa Maritime Board was under consideration for several years. The board’s goal was to streamline the management of Goa’s ports and inland waterways and promote maritime trade and tourism.Speaking at the conference, industries minister Mauvin Godinho said that transportation of cargo through the waterways can bring down the transportation cost for manufacturing industries. “We have to get the cost down. We steadily but slowly are becoming a logistics state,” said Godinho.
