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Our Bureau

Mumbai , Oct. 5

THE Government is planning to give more financial autonomy to major ports.

In a significant development, the Ministry of Shipping has proposed that chairmen of major ports could take decisions on investing for infrastructure development up to a ceiling of Rs 500 crore without having to seek the Government's approval. Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the International Maritime Expo here on Wednesday, the Union Minister for Shipping, Mr T.R. Baalu, said that at present for any investment exceeding Rs 100 crore, ports had to get the Government approval. "We have proposed to raise this ceiling to Rs 500 crore. We feel this will go a long way in hastening port infrastructure development," he said.

On the Rs 2,427-crore Sethusamudram project, the Minister said there were so far 10 bidders for the dredging work along the ship canal alignment. The proposed sea canal has been divided into four sections for taking up dredging work, with the first section having been given on a nomination basis to the state-owned Dredging Corporation of India. The remaining three sections will be given to dredging companies, including DCI, through the bidding process.

`Lead in boosting tonnage': Earlier inaugurating the expo, Mr Baalu asked Indian ship owners to take the lead in boosting tonnage as their long-pending demand for tonnage tax regime was met. He pointed out that the Indian tonnage increased from 7.05 million gross tonnage as on June 1, 2004 to 7.69 million gross tonnage on December 31, 2004 and to 8.3 million gross tonnage as on August 31, 2005.

India has over 14,000 km of navigable rivers, but cargo transported through these inland waterways is less than one per cent of the total cargo movement in the country. "The Government is encouraging users to make use of this nature given gift of navigable rivers by taking a comprehensive approach to development of inland water transportation," he said.

Cruise shipping: On cruise shipping, the Minister said in the absence of Indian flag vessels in this segment, the Ministry had relaxed cabotage to allow foreign flag cruise vessels do coastal legs without hassle. "The Government is also working on simplifying the cruise shipping affairs and this invites greater interest among global cruise operators," he said.

Mr Baalu said there was a need to have deeper channels to cater to the requirement of bigger vessels. The Government had recently approved the project for deepening of the channel of Jawaharlal Nehru port and is in the process of approving the project for deepening of the channel of Paradip port.

Mr. D.T. Joseph, Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping, chairmen of major ports and representatives of Indian National Shipowners' Association, were present on the occasion.

The expo forum is making efforts to complement the Shipping Ministry's developmental plan by designing a forum that covers areas such as National Maritime Development Programme, ocean and coastal disaster hazard preparedness, inland waterways, logistics and energy shipping.

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