The government has initiated a plan to improve the total port capacity by activating dormant ports, as India expects to cross the $200-billion mark in merchandise exports in 2010-11. The government?s attention has shifted to non-active ports in view of the total port capacity in the country falling short of the requirement.
The ports in contention are minor ports that fall in the jurisdiction of state governments. All the 12 notified major ports are controlled, although indirectly, by the Union government and are operating at a capacity of 599 million tonne (MTs).
The Centre is talking to state governments and is trying to ensure that inactive minor ports are put to use as soon as possible. ?Functioning of non-major ports rests with the state governments. But the shipping ministry will take active interest in ports which have not been used and we will try to see that those ports become active in future,? Shipping minister GK Vasan said.
To start with, the Centre and the Assam government are working in tandem to develop Dhubri Port?which is connected with major port of Kolkata and Haldia and is a significant location for loading and unloading of cargo in the north-eastern region. The authorities have planned a permanent terminal at the port and land acquisition process is on for the same. Also, the Centre has identified Dhubri Port as one of the locations for setting up an inland waterway terminal for handling cargo like jute products and coal.
The government move is crucial as the country needs huge cargo handling capacity at ports to meet the annual export target of $200 billion this financial year. The flagship National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) is not moving at the desired pace and the shipping ministry expects that new capacity addition will fall short of the target.
NMDP, which was launched in 2004-05, envisaged increasing the capacity of major ports to more than 1,000 mts by the end of March 2012, but the ministry projects that it will go to 860 mts at the most. By the same time, cargo handling strength of minor ports will reach 400 mts from 250 mts now.
?According to international standards, the rate of port capacity expansion should be 30% higher than the increase in traffic to enable the ports to handle the traffic comfortably. This implies that if we want to ease the traffic burden on ports, a lot more capacity has to be created at our ports,? Shipping Secretary K Mohandas said.