Several issues in Ports sector awaits the new ministers attention! India’s new Shipping Minister Gadkari has his task cut out New Delhi : There were expectations in the run-up to the formation of the new cabinet that Modi may merge existing mode-specific ministries such as shipping, road transport and highways, civil aviation, railways and urban transport into a single transport ministry in line with his vision of downsizing the government with the slogan “minimum Government, maximum governance”. Modi managed to club the road transport and highways and shipping ministries into a single ministry. Nitin Gadkari’s appointment as the Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways breaks the stranglehold over this ministry by lawmakers from Tamil Nadu on India’s eastern coast for a decade. Gadkari has his task cut out. In the ports sector, there are several issues that await him, the most important among them being tariff reforms, restructuring the 12 ports owned by Indian Government into corporate entities from a trustee set-up, development of coastal shipping and inland water transport, road linkages to ports and allowing Indian fleet owners to register their ships overseas. “We will evolve an economic model of Port-led development. India is blessed with a long coastline. We will modernize existing ports on one hand, and develop new ones on the other—stringing together our Sagar Mala project. Public Private Partnership would be encouraged to tap into private sector resources as well as expertise. An institutional framework would be established for the same; while regulators would be given greater autonomy as well as accountability,” he added. In July last year, the Government framed a new market-linked rate regime for port projects bid out since that date to boost flow of investments into the sector. But demands from about 15 existing cargo handlers to move to the new investor-friendly rate regime have not made any progress. Courtesy: Daily Shipping Times.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 02:03:02 +0000
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