The government today said it will award port expansion projects of Rs 14,000 crore under the public-private-partnership mode in the coming 2010-11 fiscal.
"We will award 21 projects for a total investment of Rs 14,000 crore in the coming fiscal," Shipping Secretary K Mohandas told reporters here.
The 21 projects will add about 200 million tonne (MT) cargo handling capacity to 12 major ports in the country. The current combined capacity of these ports is about 574 MT.
The total capacity by March 2012 will be 816 MT, he added. Mohandas was speaking on the sidelines of summit organised to identify investment opportunities between India and Belgium in the transportation sector.
"Right now there is no investment by Belgium in the port sector but we are confident we will see Belgian ports or the Belgian investment agencies coming to the ports sector in India," Mohandas said.
He said India has immense potential in the maritime trade given the huge coastline in the country.
"We have large coastline which gives us tremendous opportunity in ports sector and ship building," he said.
