The ministry of shipping will remain unaffected by the ministry of environment and forests’ call to halt the construction of new ports in India.
Private ports (many of them under private-public partnership) which are being set up under the jurisdiction of the state governments will be impacted, said ministry officials.
Currently, major port projects have to get clearances under the Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 1991 and an environmental clearance from the central government.
“Since the (shipping) ministry has no plans to build new ports in the country at present, we will not be affected by the measure,” a highly placed official told Business Standard.
When questioned on the ministry’s plan to double the cargo-handling capacity at ports to 1,590 million tonnes a year by 2012, another official informed: “We will achieve our targets by expanding capacity at the existing ports under our regulation. No new ports will be set up by us.” Ports will be developed through addition of new berths, creation of deeper draughts and mechanisation projects.
Indian ports yearly handle 795 million tonnes of cargo. Of this, 575 mt is handled at the major ports and the remaining 220 mt at the non-major/minor ports.
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The expansion of cargo handling capacity at ports entails an investment of Rs 91,334 crore. Of this, private firms intend to invest Rs 65,532 crore in new ports. The establishment of these will be affected by the environment ministry announcement.
No clear estimate, however, is available as to how many such projects will be impacted. “Since port projects have to obtain clearances from varying bodies, no numbers can be specified,” said Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment.
There are 12 major ports under the Centre and 187 minor/intermediary ports under the supervision of the respective state governments along the 7,517 km coastline of India.
Alarmed by the consequences that increasing industrial activity is having on the coastline of the country, the environment ministry had instructed a committee headed by scientist M S Swaminathan to recommend changes in the draft Coastal Management Zone notification, 2008. The committee in its report, ‘Final Frontier: Agenda to protect the ecosystem and habitat of India’s coast for conservation and livelihood security’ had suggested introduction of a legislation to manage the proliferation of ports along the coastline.