The Ministry of Shipping is in the process of awarding contracts for 42 port projects, including the Chennai Mega Container Terminal, in the current fiscal.
“About 17 projects have already been awarded and rest will be awarded by March this year. Most of these projects are for capacity addition, deepening of channels and modernisation,” said G.K.Vasan, Minister for Shipping.
The Minister was speaking to mediapersons after the two-day Maritime States Development Council meeting in the city.
The 42 projects will increase cargo handling capacity by about 250 million tonnes a year (mtpa) at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, he said.
“This year, we have set an ambitious target of awarding contracts for 42 port projects against the normal 6-7 projects that were awarded every year for the past decade,” P.K. Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, said.
The Government has recently delegated enhanced financial powers to the Ministry of Shipping for approval of public-private projects, the Shipping Secretary informed.
Henceforth, only projects costing more than Rs 500 crore would require the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure. Earlier, this limit was Rs 300 crore. The move is expected to accelerate investment approvals and reduce cost escalations linked to project delays.
The current capacity of major and non-major ports in the country is 1,200 mtpa.
According to the Maritime Agenda, proposed by the Shipping Ministry, it is planned that the capacity will be raised to 3,200 mtpa by 2020.
The Minister said, new ports will have to be set up across the coastline and he informed that he has already written to the Chief Ministers of all the maritime States to explore possibilities of setting up new ports.
Vasan said his Ministry has approved establishment of two new ports – one on the Sagar island of West Bengal and another in Andhra Pradesh.
He also said that his ministry has shelved the Port Regulatory Bill because of reservations expressed by some States.
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