The scheme will support new factories as well as the expansion of existing units. It aims to lift India’s annual container manufacturing capacity around ten-fold, to 7.5 lakh TEUs, from about 70,000 TEUs today. Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW), Shri Sarbananda Sonowal welcomed this announcement by thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for emboldening Make In India push in container manufacturing in the country.     “I express my heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji for his visionary leadership. His Make in India push is giving our container manufacturers the confidence to build at scale, and this scheme is a strong step to reduce import dependence,” Sarbananda Sonowal said.    India’s trade depends on containers, but almost all of them are made abroad. India’s container traffic is projected to grow from about 24 million TEUs in 2024 to 175 million TEUs by 2047 under the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision, which makes home-grown capacity critical.      • Interest Subvention Assistance (Rs 859 crore): 3 per cent a year on eligible term loans for greenfield plants of at least 1,00,000 TEUs a year and brownfield expansions of at least 25,000 TEUs a year.     • Operational Expenditure Assistance (Rs 8,891 crore): support for every container made to global shipping standards and sold by an eligible manufacturer, Rs 49,500 for a 20-foot and Rs 86,625 for a 40-foot container, to bridge the cost gap with imports. Domestic content must rise from 70 per cent to 90 per cent.     • Testing and Certification (Rs 150 crore): common facilities, such as dynamic longitudinal impact testing, to reduce dependence on overseas testing.     • Scheme management (Rs 100 crore): administration, monitoring and capacity building.     • Land at major ports: leasing support at 25 per cent of the notified rate.     An Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, will approve guidelines and sanction assistance.     The scheme is expected to create about 3,000 direct and more than 50,000 indirect jobs, in steel, components and logistics. It will also support ancillary industries such as corner castings, specialised steel, wooden frames and paints. The government estimates it will generate about Rs 75,000 crore of economic output by FY 2039-40, more than seven times the support provided. Demand is expected from replacement of the global fleet, the Bharat Container Shipping Line, and new mega ports such as Vadhavan and Galathea Bay.    

“Containers are the backbone of our trade. By making them in India, we strengthen the maritime logistics supply chain on which our ports, our exporters and our shipping lines depend, and we take another step towards a self-reliant India and the goals of Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047,” Sonowal added.