The Gujarat Assembly passed the Gujarat Maritime University bill under Gujarat Private Universities Act, 2009. The total project cost is estimated at Rs. 800 crore.
The University is aimed at addressing the need of the skilled and qualified manpower in the commercial areas of maritime sector.
The new university campus is likely to come up near Ahmedabad or Gandhinagar on an area of 100 acres.
The State, having a coastline of over 1,600 kilometres, handles approx 40 per cent of the total seaborne national cargo with only 3 to 4 institutes offering maritime education, of which majority offers technical education with total intake capacity of approximately 280.
In the two-phase plan for the rollout of the University, first phase will have programmes focusing on post-graduate courses covering commercial aspects of the maritime industry, such as logistics, law, maritime management, shipping trade and finance. Also, a programme for working professionals will also be introduced.
In the second phase, the University will look to offer under-pressure programmes on technical faculty development will be launched.
It is estimated that the University would have about 1,000 students by end of Phase 1 and about 5000 students by end of Phase 2.
The total funding requirement for Phase 1 of the University is around Rs. 275 crore.