National port master plan

A national port master plan is a government-level strategy that coordinates the whole port system of a country, assigning roles to individual ports, ranking investment, and aligning landside corridors so capacity is not duplicated between competing harbors. It sits above each port’s own master plan and links to national transport, trade, and industrial policy, often grouping ports into gateway, feeder, and specialized categories. Examples include India’s Sagarmala programme and similar system plans elsewhere. The plan steers public funding, regulatory reform, and the landlord-versus-service governance model adopted across the network.