Shipping min says on track to award 25 ports by March

The Union shipping ministry is fast-tracking processes to award a total of 42 port projects this fiscal.

It has so far cleared 17.

“In the current year the ministry has a very ambitious plan of awarding 42 projects at a total cost of Rs14,770 crore to achieve a capacity of 250 million tonne per annum (mtpa). This is against an average of 5-6 projects awarded previously,” shipping minister GK Vasan said.

The plan is a part of the maritime agenda for 2020, which spells the government’s roadmap for creating a 3,200 mtpa capacity for both major and non-major ports by that year.

The ministry is also working on sorting out security clearances as some of the major projects in the past were stuck because of it.

“We have had several meetings with Planning Commission and PMO and have sorted out the bottlenecks regarding security clearances.,” a ministry official said.

On the security clearance issue on the Chennai Port project, the official said once the the decision on Adani Ports security clearance is in place, Chennai port will go ahead award the project. Essar and Adani are the two bidders for the project.The ministry has also decided to do away with the tariff fixation regulation by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports, which could be one of the biggest boost to encourage private players in the sector.