Shipping ministry sets 3 deadlines for development, modernisation of ports

The shipping ministry has drafted three sets of plans — five years, one year, and 100 days — for development and modernisation of ports.

The long-term plan will focus on modernisation and capacity enhancement projects worth about Rs 1,500 crore to be implemented in the next five years, the medium term projects will focus on port modernisation projects worth over Rs 800 crore to be implemented in the next one year.

The projects that have the necessary regulatory approvals in place would be tendered in the next 100 days. 

According to the ministry's plan, these include awarding both port development and modernisation projects. “The plan is to fast track maritime projects by taking certain changes in execution and operation of the projects,” a shipping ministry official said.

Under the 100-day plan, a clutch of projects has been shortlisted and will be tendered starting July.

 These include coastal berth projects, coastal shipping projects and completion of the some of the projects started earlier. 

The ministry also wants that there should be a common Goods and Services Tax (GST) for multi-modal transport.  For instance, regular cargo is taxed at 5 per cent while the coastal cargo is taxed at 12 per cent. 

“We want a common GST for both otherwise how will we be able to encourage multi-modal transportation,” the official quoted above said.

If the current year is about coastal projects, 2020 will be about cruise services, as the completion of upgradation and modernisation of international cruise terminal at the Mumbai Port Trust is expected to be functional around that time at an investment of about Rs 300 crore.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by then shipping minister Nitin Gadkari in November 2018. 

2020 would also see the completion of some of the last-mile road and port connectivity projects. 

A lion’s share of maritime projects would be executed in the next five years, which are a mix of port modernisation, capacity enhancement, cruise terminals, port connectivity and coastal shipping.

All these assignments are under the umbrella of Sagarmala and part of its action plan for the next half decade. When the Cabinet approved Sagarmala on March 25, 2015, it envisaged projects worth Rs 8.7 trillion that would connect 600 ports.

The National Perspective Plan of Sagarmala envisions the potential to save Rs 21,000-27,000 crore through coastal shipping of 230-280 million tonnes per annum of key commodities such as coal, cement, fertilisers, iron and steel, food grains, and POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) by 2025.

The Sagarmala project is being funded by the government through various ministries and agencies as well as private sources.

The scheme also aims to provide access to new regions and enhanced connectivity with main economic centres and beyond through expansion of railways, inland waterways, coastal, and road services. 

There are 12 major ports in India: Kandla, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Kolkata (including Haldia).

Ports handle 90 per cent of the country's export-import cargo by volume and 70 per cent by value. Gujarat caters to 25-30 per cent of the cargo traffic. Connecting coastal areas to ports was planned proximity brings down logistics costs.