Karnataka maritime board on the anvil

Karnataka will soon have its own Maritime Board — a regulator-facilitator for the development of ports.

On the sidelines of Independence Day celebrations on Monday, state ports minister Krishna Palemar said, “It is customary for the state boards to have the ports minister as its chairman. But I have declined to take that position and delegated that power to the additional chief secretary and four members from various stakeholder organisations and agencies.”

“The executive summary and the draft proposal have been sent to the central government. We are expecting to take it to the government this year. Once that’s complete, it will be tabled in the Cabinet meeting, which will be presented in both houses of the legislature, in the next assembly session,” he added.

The Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry had spearheaded the movement for formation of the Maritime Board. GG Mohandas Prabhu, former president of the chamber, said, “At present, the minor ports are a neglected lot. There are no facilities for docking, drinking water, fish auctioning halls, refuelling stations, medical amenities or communication links. The chamber had appealed to the government in March.”

“The board will take up the development of minor ports, by providing logistics services and maintaining infrastructure. It will spur the movement towards private management of ports in a phased manner under government supervision. The local people will be involved in the development of their own ports,” Palemar said. The maritime boards spur the growth of facilities in minor ports, including fishing ports. Karnataka has 10 minor ports at Karwar, Belekeri, Tadadi, Honnavar, Bhatkal, Kundapur, Hangarkatta, Malpe, and Padubidri,  and Old Mangalore port (also called Bunder).

Other states that have their own maritime boards are Gujarat and Maharashtra on the western coast and West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh on the eastern coast.