Government is planning to create coastal economic zones to boost manufacturing. It will be set up along the country’s 7,500 kilometer long coastline covering many states, ports and special economic zones.
Government will provide host of incentives and facilities to investors uniformly across country, a senior official said. The official said, government is planning to have port-led development as was done in China where cities were granted special status of open coastal cities.
Tough India has many ports, there is no cluster or a section of coastline that enjoys special status and incentives. However, there are special economic zones where investors can set up their manufacturing base and get incentives like tax exemption, speedy regulatory clearance, round the clock power and security. In the present scenario, these coastal economic zones could come up in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.