India must develop a couple of ports each on both eastern and western coasts to be promoted as 'hub ports' to attract trans-shipment cargo, 80 per cent of which is routed through Colombo, Dubai and Singapore, according to experts.
The government must formulate an integrated transport policy taking into account different modes such as roads, railways and inland waterways with a focus on the needs of not only domestic, but international customers, speakers at a national seminar on 'development of ports in India and rail connectivity' said today.
These ports should function as hub ports for containerised cargo, where containers can be aggregated and liner services operated to Europe or the US or other destinations, they said.
The Railways had offered to build a land-bridge across the country connecting major ports on the eastern coast with those on the western coast for seamless flow of international containerised cargo through the country, but the idea did not progress in the absence of an integrated transport policy.
The participants emphasised the need for attitudinal change on the part of both port trusts and Railways towards market forces and greater interaction with customers.
The existing policy on private sector involvement in development of existing and new port facilities was not clear and "each case is done on an ad hoc basis." Therefore, there was a need to have comprehensive policy guidelines for private sector participation in both port and rail sector, they said.
Land access or connectivity to the island transport systems such as rail network had not received adequate attention in the development of ports. "This needs to be changed as cost competitiveness of ports depends not only on cost-efficiency of port operations, but also on cost-efficiency of inland transport systems."
The seminar suggested that port authorities, government and private investors "should join hands in developing road, rail and inland water transport infrastructure so that all stakeholders derive economic benefits by reduction of inland transport cost and as a consequence making Indian exports competitive and imports cheaper".
