Govt authorises Ports to award contracts without its prior nod

The Centre has empowered port authorities to award contracts without prior approval of the Shipping Ministry to selected bidders under the public private partnership mode to expedite projects worth Rs 23,000 crore.

The Ministry has written to all port trusts authorising them to sign concession agreements for the PPP projects. They can take such decisions at their board level.

However, the Ministry must be informed of all the works awarded.

"Ports have been sending proposals to the Ministry before signing the Concession Agreements with the selected bidders quoting the highest revenue share. It has been decided that henceforth the ports need not send the proposal for prior approval of the Ministry before signing the Concession Agreement," a Shipping Ministry communique to all the ports said.

The move comes at the a time when five major PPP port projects worth more than Rs 2,700 crore are to be awarded in the next few weeks.

The process for awarding another 23 projects worth more than Rs 20,000 crore has to be completed by December 2009.

The government has set a target of taking the overall capacity of 12 major ports to 1,016 MT by 2012 from the present 555 MT.