Govt plans seven greenfield ports

The Centre is planning to develop seven minor ports in seven maritime states at an estimated cost of Rs 9,000 crore.

The government has also drawn up plans to develop greenfield airports at Hassan, Gulbarga (both in Karnataka) and Gangtok (Sikkim).

The director general of shipping has sent the port proposals under the National Maritime Development Programme to the shipping ministry. P H Krishnan,deputy DG-shipping, confirmed the proposal of seven ports but declined to divulge details.

On the greenfield airports, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said that the idea was to ensure connectivity in all parts of the country. "We are also reviewing the existing route dispersal guidelines for domestic airlines to ensure connectivity," said Patel.

The seven non-major ports include Azhikal (Kerala), Dharamtar (Maharashtra), Magdala (Gujarat), Cuddallore (Tamil Nadu), Gopalpur (Orissa) and Narzapur (Andhra Pradesh).

According to a government official, the shipping ministry has given an in-principle approval for the developent of the seven non-major ports. "A centrally sponsored scheme and a corpus of Rs 500 crore will be set up for the ports," the official said.

"Out of the Rs 9,000 crore, the government will spend 33 per cent for basic infrastructure such as construction of jetties, wharfage, capital dredging and other facilities. Remaining 67 per cent will come from respective states and private players," said the official.

Sources said the actual plan was to construct 13 non-major ports but it was later reduced to seven.

The civil aviation minister has chalked out Rs 6,000 crore plan to develop 35 non-metro airports in the country under five clusters by 2009.

The Airport Authority of India has already taken initiatives to operationalise the airports at Cooch Behar, Pant Nagar, Akola, Gondia, Surat, Pithoragarh, Guachar and Mysore.