'Rs 100,000 cr investments in ports, shipping'

Kochi, Dec 22: India will mobilise investments to the tune of Rs 100,000 crore by 2025 in the ports and shipping sector through public-private partnership, Union Shipping Minister T R Balu said today.

Addressing a press conference here after presiding over the eighth meeting of the Maritime States Development Council (MSDC), Mr Balu said investments worth Rs 60,000 crore will be mobilised by 2011-12 to meet the target of creating 1.5 billion tonnes annual capacity in major and non-major ports by the end of the 11th Plan period.

Emphasising the role of public-private partnership to meet these goals, Mr Balu said while the government could invest upto 40 per cent, the balance 60 per cent would be mobilised from the private sector.

The Centre had already formulated 276 projects in the port sector and 11 in the shipping sector.

Among the major projects for which the government had started the preliminary spadework was a deep-sea port off West Bengal and a transhipment port at Great Nicobar Island. While an Expression of Interest had been invited to conduct a feasibility study for the West Bengal project, the government was going to initiate a similar study for the Great Nicobar Island also.

The required investment for the deep-sea port off West Bengal could be about Rs 7,000 crore, he said.

Earlier, while inaugurating the eighth ministerial-level meeting of the MSDC, attended by the ministers of six maritime states and the chief minister of Goa, besides the chairmen of all major ports and other senior officials, Mr Balu said that maritime states and UTs had drawn up ambitious plans to expand the port capacities substantially.

By 2011-12, more than 400 million tonnes per annum capacity was likely to be added by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Goa, Kerala and Puducherry.

He said that a Maritime University, with the main objective of fostering excellence in various fields connected with maritime studies, is proposed to be set up at Chennai with campuses at Kolkata, Mumbai and Visakhapatanam. The union cabinet had approved the proposal recently and the bill in this regard will be introduced in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament.

The government had also decided to declare two more stretches along the rivers as National Waterways and the bills for enacting the necessary legilsation had been introduced in the Lok Sabha.

These streteches are the Bhadrachalam-Rajamundry stretch of River Godavari along with Wazirabad-Vijayawada stretch of River Krishna besides the Charbaita-Dhamra stretch of Matai River, Talchar Dhamra stretch of river Brahmani and Mangalgadi-Paradip stretch of Mahanadi delta, Mr Baalu said. Talking of the progress of the ongoing projects under the National Maritime Development Programme, Mr Baalu said the third container terminal, with a capacity of handling 1.3 milliion TEUs per annum, had become fully operational at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

The Chennai Port Trust has issued a Letter of Intent to a private party for signing a license agreement for developing a second container terminal. The Cochin Port Trust has signed a license agreement with a private operator for development of the International Container Transhipment Terminal at Vallarpadam.

Kandla Port has also signed a License Agreement with a private opeator for development of a container terminal.

At Mumbai and Tuticorin ports, bidding process was in progress for development of container berths.

Expressions of Interest had been received from several reputed parties to develop a fourth container terminal, with a 4.4 million TEUs per annum capacity and a Marine Chemical Terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

The Ennore Port had signed three concession agreements with private parties to develop separate marine liquid, iron ore and coal terminals.

Noting that India's traffic buoyancy had been growing at around ten per cent during the recent years, Mr Baalu said that the GDP had grown at 9.1 per cent during the first six months of the current financial year as compared to 8.5 per cent during the same period last year. Exports had grown at 35 per cent in value terms compared to 22.1 per cent during the first half of last year. Imports had grown at about 33 per cent.

Besides Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane, the MSDC meet was attended by Tamil Nadu Highways and Ports Minister V M P Saminathan, Karnataka Public Works Minister H D Revanna, Gujarat Industries Minister Anil Bhai Patel, Puducherry Ports Minister E Valsaraj, Maharashtra Ports Minister Pritamkumar Shegaonkar and Orissa Commerce Minister Jaya Narayan Mishra.

Union Shipping Secretary A K Mahapatra and the senior officials of Gujarat, Orissa, Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh also attended the meeting.

The chairmen or senior officers of the Kandla, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Marmagao, Kochi, Chennai, Ennore, Paradip, Tuticorin, Kolkata and Visakhapatanam ports also attended the meeting, which Mr Baalu described as ''very successful'' in finding solutions to some problems and flagging off some areas of concern.

Senior officiers of the Ministry of Defence, Coast Guard, DG Shipping, Inland Waterways Authority, Andaman Lakshadweep Harbour Works, Dredging Corporation of India and Lighthouse and Lightships Department also attended the meeting.

UNI