New land policy for major ports: Vasan

The Shipping Ministry is working on formulating a new land policy for major ports that is aimed at ensuring level playing field for all stakeholders.

"My Ministry is also relentlessly working on formulation of new land policy as well as captive land use policy for major ports," Shipping Minister G K Vasan said today at the curtain raiser event of international conference on 'India Maritime 2012' here.

The policy would be more transparent and provide "level playing field" to the stake holders, he said. Soon it will be placed before the Cabinet for its approval.

Efforts are also on for setting up two ports in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, he added.

"During this financial year, measures would be initiated to get approval of the Union Cabinet for establishing these two ports," he said.

Stating that his Ministry issued new guidelines to streamline processing of security clearances in port development projects, he said, "The Ministry is also taking steps to ensure expeditious grant of environment clearance, land acquisition and litigation".

Vasan said in order to meet the traffic of more than 1,700 million tonnes during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), major and non-major ports present in the country have conceptualised various capacity augmentation schemes at an estimated investment of Rs 1.80 lakh crore.

The estimated capacity by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan would be nearly 2,700 million tonnes, he said.

"PPP (Public Private Participation model) will continue to be the preferred mode of development of port infrastructure during the 12th Plan period too. Private sector participation will play a major role in realising the planned capacity augmentation at the Ports during the 12th Plan...",he said.

Referring to 'India Maritime 2012' scheduled to be held in Goa next month, he said, "The event will provide a platform to organisations involved in port infrastructure, shipping lines and management, cargo handling, ship builders and manufacturers and other related service providers to showcase their capabilities".

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