Out of the total amount, Rs. 10,000 crore would be spent for port infrastructure facilities development and Rs 3,000 crore for back-up infrastructure (roads and railways), Patel said in a message on the occasion of Maritime Day on Monday.

Availability of adequate port infrastructure facilities are imperative for the overall economic development of the state, he said.

According to Patel, an estimated 50 per cent of total industrial investment coming to Gujarat would be Port based and 60 per cent of the petroleum products imported into the country would be routed through Gujarat coasts.

It is expected that the traffic handled by all the ports in the country may touch 400 million tonnes by 2001. Gujarat would be in a position to handle 120 million tonnes traffic as against the 25 million tonnes it handled through the maritime developments inthe state, he said.

Gujarat's share will have a quantum jump from seven per cent to 25 per cent of the national capacity for handling of cargo, he said.

Emerging as the port land of India, Rs 5,056 crore has already been invested in the port sector in the last 40 months, out of which Rs 3,300 crore was invested in the year 1998-99 itself.