Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Centre will spend around 70 thousand crore rupees in 12 major ports in the next five years under Sagarmala Project, aimed at port-led development in coastal areas. After chairing the first meeting of the National Sagarmala Apex Committee in New Delhi yesterday, Mr Gadkari said, there is a need to reduce logistic cost to increase the industrial output and ports can play an important role in it.<br/><br/>He said, the logistic cost in India is 3 times more than China, which has been hampering India to compete in the international markets. Gadkari said the project is aimed at development of coastal states through modernisation, mechanisation and computerisation and would create huge employment besides boosting the country's GDP. He said, port, shipping and highways sector will very soon add 2 per cent to the country's GDP.<br/><br/>The main objective of the Sagarmala project is to promote port-led direct and indirect development along India's 7,500-km long coastline to provide infrastructure to transport goods to and from ports quickly, efficiently and cost effectively.