Shipping minister GK Vasan on Friday said the Centre was expecting Rs 2.34 lakh crore private investments in the port sector under public private partnership by 2019-20.
The minister on Friday laid the foundation for development of EQ-1 berth on a DBFOT (design built finance operate and transfer) basis at Vizag port inner harbour with a cost of Rs 323 crore. Adani ports is developing the berth.
Stating that the present traffic of Indian ports was 885 million tonnes, and expected to grow at a rate of 11 per cent to reach about 2,500 million tonnes by 2019-20, it was necessary to increase the overall capacity of major ports to 3,230 million tonne by that time. At present, the capacity of the ports is 963 million tonnes.
To achieve this, the ministry had envisaged an investment of about Rs 2.77 lakh crore. As the government alone cannot meet this massive investment, he said Rs2.34 lakh crore was planned to be invested through the PPP mode. To attract overseas investors and port operators, 100 per cent foreign direct investment under the automatic route had been permitted besides 100 per cent income tax exemption was also available for a period of 10 years.
The ministry is also finalising the coastal shipping policy and formulating major ports regulatory authority for development of the sector. The government had unveiled the captive policy for the port sector that allows industries to set up cargo handling facility for their own use at major ports, he said.
The Vizag port is spending Rs 13,900 crore on modernisation of which, Rs 7,100 crore is proposed through the PPP mode. Post modernisation, the port's handling capacity would increase to 103 million tonnes by 2019-20.
The EQ-1 berth would enhance the productivity levels of handling steam coal at an output rate of 27,000 tonnes per day with a capacity of 6.40 million tonnes per annum, he said.
