Sagarmala is an ambitious national initiative aimed at bringing about a step change in India's logistics sector performance, by unlocking the full potential of India's coastline and waterways. The vision of Sagarmala is to reduce logistics cost for both domestic and EXIM cargo with optimized infrastructure investment. Sagarmala aspires to reduce logistics costs for EXIM and domestic cargo leading to overall cost savings of INR 35,000 to 40,000 cr. per annum. Some of this will be direct cost savings, while others are savings from inventory-handling costs resulting from time (and reduced variability) in transportation of goods, particularly containers. These cost savings apply to current industrial capacities as well as future coast proximate capacities for energy, material, marine and discrete industries that could come up through port-linked industrialization. In addition, Sagarmala aspires to reduce carbon emissions from transportation sector by 12.5 MT/annum.

The concept of "port led development" is central to the Sagarmala vision. Port-led development focuses on logistics intensive industries (where transportation either represents a high proportion of costs, or timely logistics are a critical success factor). These industries can be structurally competitive if developed proximate to coast/waterways. They would be supported by efficient and modern port infrastructure and seamless multi modal connectivity. The population in adjoining areas would be sufficiently skilled to participate in economic opportunities on offer. The synergistic and coordinated development of the above four components, namely logistics intensive industries, efficient ports, seamless connectivity and requisite skill-base - leads to unlocking of economic value.