India, Norway to jointly work in marine spatial planning for next 5 years

India and Norway have agreed to jointly work in the area of marine spatial planning in the oceanic space for the next five years. The two countries have decided to extend support for sustainable ocean resources utilisation to advance economic and social development in coastal areas.

The initiative known as Marine Spatial Planning will be implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences through the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) for India.

In this regard, the first project steering committee meeting was successfully conducted virtually recently, after which the two countries have charted out a plan to ensure that human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe, and sustainable manner in areas such as energy, transportation, fisheries, aquaculture and tourism.

This is a part of the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Initiative under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries in 2019. The two countries have decided to extend support for sustainable ocean resources utilisation to advance the economic and social development of coastal areas.

Lakshadweep and Puducherry have been identified as pilot sites for the project. They have been chosen as the pilot sites in view of their setups with unique opportunities for multiple sectors to flourish. Union Government's initial investments for undertaking the studies and planning are estimated to be around Rs 8-10 crore annually. Going forward, the marine spatial planning framework of these two environmentally critical areas can be replicated in other coastal regions of the country.