State-run Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) may report a post-tax profit of Rs 450 crore for the current fiscal, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.
"I am told by the Chairman and Managing Director that SCI will report a profit of Rs 450 crore this fiscal," Gadkari said while speaking at a Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry event here.
The company has reported a profit of Rs 325 crore in the first half of the fiscal year.
Last fiscal, it reported a net profit of Rs 200 crore on a revenue of Rs 4,310 crore.
Gadkari has been repeatedly stressing on the need for government enterprises to be profitable. Last week, he said that the dozen companies under his ministry, including 10 major ports and two shipyards, will report a profit of Rs 6,500 crore.
Meanwhile, in order to save expenditure on dry-docking faced by domestic ship owners, Gadkari said the government is at an advanced stage of setting up dry-docking facilities in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
The total investment in the facility will be around Rs 1,600-1,800 crore and the government will make the entire investment, he said.
He said at present the ships go to Singapore for this purpose and the same job can be done at Andaman and Nicobar Islands for tenth of the cost.
According to a senior government official, the process for setting up the facility has already been initiated and it is at the DPR (detailed project report) stage.
It may take another two years before the project comes up, the official added.
Solely holding responsible the "vested interests opposed
to transparency and computerisation" in highways sector for delay in the Bill, the Minister said a Group of Ministers (GoM) is working on it and has already taken on board most of the states.
Hopeful that the Bill would get passed in the next Parliament session, Gadkari said a policy has been prepared in the meantime to mandate setting aside one per cent of the total project cost of any highway project for road safety issues while government will spend at least Rs 5,000 crore.
The funds will be spent on fixing black-spots or accident-prone areas, as also for installing cameras and lights, among other such safeguards.
In its interim report, the GoM has also suggested three years of imprisonment and hefty penalties for owner of the vehicles in cases where drivers are juveniles.
The GoM, formed last month and headed by Rajasthan Transport Minister Yunus Khan, has unanimously agreed on framing strict penalties for offences like driving by minors, crossing speed-limits, drunk driving, using mobiles while driving and jumping traffic lights. Besides, a steep hike is being proposed in fines in case of a law-enforcing official is found violating the traffic norms.
The GoM has also agreed on a proposal entailing spot registration of vehicles at dealers point besides simplification of forms. It has also recommended mandatorily fitting all public vehicles with GPS, camera, broadband and other such features before registration.
Gadkari said the next meeting of the GoM is scheduled in Laddakh next month. Once the recommendations are finalised, they will be sent to the Cabinet for approval and subsequently be introduced in Parliament for passage, he added.
To save lives, unique ambulances are being designed which will be equipped with man and machinery to take out trapped road accident victims from vehicles, he said, while adding many lives are lost due to absence of appropriate devices to cut through the metal bodies of vehicles with people inside.
Also, instructions are being issued to make officials framing faulty project reports accused in cases of road accidents as wrong road engineering has also been found at times to have caused accidents and drivers alone cannot be held responsible for it.
Earlier this month, a parliamentary panel also called for a new legislation on road safety in tune with the country's changing needs and asked the government to ensure its enactment without any further delay.
It said any inordinate delay can be avoided with proper planning and meticulous compliance with the due procedures which are apparently found wanting in this case.
