India’s Maritime Blindspot: India’s Lack of Port Infrastructure

Ports are the backbone of a state’s economic integration as well as strategic military capabilities. Modern trade relies heavily on the seamless movement of goods across water, and ports act as essential means for achieving this end. Beyond economics, port infrastructure is also a key cornerstone of maritime security. Strategically located ports enable the states to project their naval power, carry out maritime exercises, and well as conduct surveillance. 

Illustration by The Geostrata

India’s underdeveloped port infrastructure remains a bottleneck in realising its full economic and maritime potential. Despite its advantageous geographic location and proximity to major trade routes of the world, Indian ports lack global performance due to structural and operational inefficiencies. 

Strategically, this undermines India’s maritime influence and its ability to rapidly respond to security challenges in the Indian Ocean Region.

Moreover, in a geopolitical context, China’s expanding port presence through the “String of Pearls”, India’s lack of infrastructure, and challenges its strategic positioning.

INDIA’S MARITIME BLINDNESS THROUGH THE LENS OF MAHAN’S SEA THEORY

Alfred Thayer Mahan posits that maritime power is essential for a state’s national security, emphasising the navy’s capacity to project power and secure key maritime assets like strategic chokepoints and naval bases for sustaining maritime dominance and geopolitical leverage.

India’s port infrastructure deficiencies run counter to Mahan’s sea power theory. He argued that for dominance at sea, a powerful navy is not just imperative but also a well-connected and equipped port infrastructure. From this perspective, India’s structural barrier hinders in full realisation of its maritime influence.

Mahan also believed that geographical proximity played a key role in dominating global trade routes. While India possesses this maritime positioning, it fails to fully capitalise on it owing to its infrastructural underdevelopment.

INDIA’S MARITIME VISION   

Maritime security is a complex and ever-evolving concept that broadly comprises safeguarding national maritime interests and ensuring safe seas.  India’s maritime security faces growing difficulties from both traditional and non-traditional threats. 

Traditional threats require persistent military preparedness.

Non-traditional threats like maritime terrorism, piracy, and armed robbery pose significant challenges to international shipping.  These threats are elevated by the wide-ranging scale of the maritime domain, the host of actors involved, and the absence of a cohesive international legal framework.   

India has a holistic approach to maritime security, drawing on its maritime traditions to trade and not to conquer. India advocates peaceful use of the sea, firmly rejecting maritime expansionism and upholding a commitment to international maritime laws.

India’s maritime strategy is deeply rooted in its long 7,517 km coastline, which stretches along the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean

As India advances in the 21st century, advancement and prosperity remain intrinsically linked to its maritime strategy. Freedom to use the Seas: India’s Maritime Military Strategy, published by the Indian Navy in 2007, met this requirement for India’s maritime power. The revised strategy, titled Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy, presents a comprehensive and integrated vision of maritime security in India.  

Nevertheless, this ambition is significantly constrained by the current scenario of Indian port infrastructure. Many Indian ports lack the depth, capacity, and technological support needed to handle both modern naval vessels and commercial ships. Indian Navy and other maritime security agencies face operational limitations. This impacts their ability to swiftly manage maritime emergencies and security breaches. 

These inadequacies further expand in the domain of coastal and offshore security. Surveillance operations receive a setback, which leaves India’s vast coastline vulnerable, forming gaps in maritime domain awareness and response capabilities. Many smaller ports are inadequately equipped with modern surveillance systems such as radars and Automatic Identification Systems. These vulnerabilities create surveillance blind spots that can be exploited by hostile actors, as was tragically demonstrated during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. 

GEOPOLITICS OF THE SEA

Geography is a vital part of maritime strategy, which complicates as well as sustains maritime security. India enjoys an advantageous geographic position in the Indian Ocean. India is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Arabian Sea to the west, and the Indian Ocean to the south.

India’s central position in the Indian Ocean Region, near major International Shipping Lanes, offers some strategic advantages by positioning some key chokepoints and the outer IOR region within its proximity.

The Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Bab el-Mandeb are easily accessible from India’s maritime realm, handling about  80% of the globe’s maritime oil trade. India’s proximity to the Strait of Malacca also positions it as a gatekeeper of the vital shipping lanes connecting the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Indo-Pacific has emerged as a key geopolitical and economic space in contemporary times. For India, the Indo-Pacific stands for a democratic, free, and inclusive zone.  India’s vision of the Indo-Pacific is largely grounded on Prime Minister Modi’s idea of  SAGAR.

A key tenet of India’s maritime strategy is  Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR), which aims at collective prosperity and security for all in the region. SAGAR was launched in 2015. It upholds India’s role as a net security provider, positioning it as a regional stabiliser and security provider. SAGAR also complements initiatives like Maritime India Vision 2030 and Sagarmala Project, which centres on port modernisation, connectivity, and economic advancement, linking security with prosperity. Despite its strategic location, India lacks infrastructure, which hampers its ability to fully comprehend the objectives of SAGAR.

HURDLES TO INDIA’S MARITIME VISION

Indian ports face significant hurdles that hinder their efficiency and global competitiveness. Such inefficiencies undermine both India’s trade competitiveness and maritime security readiness. Indian ports face congestion, which eventually increases the handling costs. The gate-in-process lacks standardisation, varying across locations. This fragmented practice and inconsistency in procedure lead to congestion and inefficiencies.  Further lack of connectivity leads to higher inventories, higher handling costs, delays in delivery, and low trade competitiveness. 

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The Indian government has implemented many regulatory policies to address evolving port stakeholder demands, but some policies still remain ineffective. Cabotage law, which restricts foreign-flagged ships from transporting cargo or passengers between domestic ports, limits competition by confining coastal trade to Indian-flagged vessels, thereby reducing efficiency in the maritime sector. Tariff regulations are inconsistent, along with detention and demurrage charges, which burden traders hampering trade.

Ports also face documentation challenges, which increase clearance time and transaction costs. The breakdown of digital infrastructure also increases the clearance time. In this evolving geopolitical stage, China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean Region poses a significant challenge to India’s maritime security, especially given India’s hurdles in port infrastructure.

Through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative and the String of Pearls, China has heavily invested in developing modernised ports in various strategic locations encircling India. 

Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Somalia are countries where China is establishing maritime bases as a “String of Pearls” to boost its influence and military networks. India’s counter strategy has been the  “Necklace of Diamonds” that consists of Changi service Base in Singapore, Chabahar Port in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Belief Islands in Seychelles, and Duqm Port in the Sultanate of Oman. 

India’s slow progress in port modernisation undermines its counter efforts to China’s expanding maritime footprint. India faces significant delays in modernising its port infrastructure both domestically and regionally. Despite projects like Sagarmala, India still lags behind China in forging strong maritime footholds. Countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives have been more open to Chinese investments than Indian ones, outpacing India’s strategic influence. 

India’s geographic advantage thus must be reinforced through strategic infrastructure development, stronger naval capabilities, and active participation in regional groupings such as the Quad.

RECOMMENDATIONS

There is a pressing need to increase the investment and modernisation of port infrastructure in India to enhance operational efficiency and support sustained economic development. This would help in reducing turnaround time and increasing capacity. Digital technologies should be implemented to increase real-time monitoring. 

Further, both major and non-major ports should be developed to handle increasing traffic, especially along the west and east coasts. Ensuring a well-integrated system of the inland transport network is essential for minimising congestion and improving intermodal connectivity. There is a need to strengthen cybersecurity in port management systems for securing maritime interests. Port documentation as well as regulations should be streamlined and standardised to improve efficiency, incentivising the development of smaller ports.  

In conclusion, modernising port infrastructure is not merely an economic imperative but a strategic necessity for securing India’s maritime future. India needs to upgrade its ports and develop its logistics to compete with global players like China in the emerging geopolitical dynamics. It is not just an economic necessity but also a strategic imperative for India to establish a strong strategic foot.

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BY ANUSHKA DHAR

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com